Fans of Bryan Fuller’s short-lived NBC series “Hannibal” remain as hungry as ever for a revival of the series, and the series creator is keeping that hunger alive with a small update.
Speaking with The Horror Queers podcast ahead of Fuller’s Dust Bunny release, in theaters on December 12, the filmmaker revealed that rights to the IP are the biggest barrier to season 4.
“Everybody wants to return. Hugh [Dancy], and Mads [Mikkelsen], definitely. But also Lawrence Fishburne, Katie Isabelle, Caroline Dhavernas, Lara Jean Chorostecki, Aaron Abrams, and Scott [Thompson] all want to come back to the story. Right now, it’s a little complicated since Martha de Laurentiis‘ passing.
The rights are in the process of reversion to Thomas Harris. MGM/Amazon has some. They’re all being navigated in a way that is going to be a little trickier to iron out now. They’re in process, and I keep on touching base and trying to encourage folks to get back together.”
As for what that would look like, Fuller has a clear plan.
“I’ve talked a little bit about wanting to do a The Silence of the Lambs adaptation, which may be free of certain obligations to include Gaumont [International Television], who is the studio on Hannibal. You can’t copyright a performance, you know? So there are things that we’re trying to figure out if we can get away with that would make it an easier path that might shake the possibilities loose of things that we might be hindered from doing at this point, given the status of the rights.”
‘The Silence of the Lambs’
It’s worth noting that Fuller very recently mentioned his desire to tackle The Silence of the Lambs, with Zendaya as Clarice Starling.
Fuller expands further, “I know exactly what season 4 of Hannibal is, and I was frustrated with Season 1. That felt a little more like traditional television to me. There was a lot more ‘murder mystery of the week’ crime procedural kind of things. I was not necessarily drawn to that as an audience member, but I thought Season 2 was better. Season 3, I was like, ‘Okay, this is what we should be doing. This is what I want to be doing. This is the type of storytelling that I think the show can do. And there are a lot of people who don’t like Season 3, and I was like, ‘Well then, you really don’t want a Season 4, because that’s it.’ If you’re not down with Season 3, then you’re not going to be grooving on the plan for Season 4 because it’s following that arc.”
Creator Bryan Fuller has been keeping the hope alive for the return of “Hannibal” ever since NBC pulled the plug back in 2015, and it sounds like he’s not alone.
The filmmaker reunites with Hannibal Lecter actor Mads Mikkelsen on the gateway genre movie Dust Bunny next month. Stay tuned for more on The Horror Queers’ upcoming chat with Fuller.
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Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter in “Hannibal”