Trivia for
Hannibal (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• When Jodie Foster declined to reprise the role of Clarice Starling, Julianne Moore beat Gillian Anderson, Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Heather Locklear, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Drew Barrymore, Winona Ryder, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Kristin Davis, Bridget Fonda, Calista Flockhart, Helen Hunt, Sandra Bullock, Christina Applegate, Jennifer Connelly, Meg Ryan, Shannen Doherty, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Eggert and Teri Hatcher for the role. Anderson fell out of the running early on when it was discovered her contract to "The X Files" (1993) prohibited her from playing another FBI agent. Davis and Parker both turned down the part due to their contract to HBO's "Sex and the City" (1998). Flockhart declined due to her contract to "Ally McBeal" (1997).
  
  
• After Thomas Harris finished writing the novel, he sent copies to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) principals Jonathan Demme, Jodie Foster, Ted Tally, and Anthony Hopkins for approval. The screenplay was rewritten no less than 15 times because of dissatisfaction by Demme and Foster over new character elements. In the end, neither Demme nor Foster remained with the production.
  
  
• Mason's mansion is actually the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.
  
  
• Krendler's lake house with the boat dock is the same house used in the What About Bob? (1991)
  
  
• The outdoor opera, Dante's "La vita nuova", which Dr. Lecter and Mr. Pazzi see in Florence, was especially composed for the movie. Composer Patrick Cassidy did not stop at the three minute part as performed in the movie, but composed an entire opera.
  
  
• Some of the places where the movie was filmed include places where filming hardly ever is allowed. Author Thomas Harris, while doing research for his book, got in contact with the heir of the Palazzo Capponi. For the movie this same heir allowed Ridley Scott to film the Capponi Library.
  
  
• The first shot of Florence after the movie starts is the same scene as depicted in the drawing on Hannibal's cell wall Hannibal describes to Clarice in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - the Duomo, as seen from the Belvedere, in Florence, Italy.
  
  
• Dr. Lecter's Florentine alias, Dr. Fell, is taken from a rhyming epigram by 17th century English satirist Thomas Brown: "I do not love thee, Dr. Fell; The reason why I cannot tell. But this alone I know full well: I do not love thee, Dr. Fell." The alias is also a reference to the "Silence of the Lambs" book where Jame Gumb, a.k.a. Buffalo Bill, lived in Fell Street.
  
  
• The music during the opening credits is "Aria da Capo" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, as being played by Glenn Gould, a tape of which was playing while Lecter killed the two guards in Tennessee in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
  
  
• Veteran character actor Frankie Faison has appeared in all four of the "Hannibal" movies. He played Lieutenant Fisk in Manhunter (1986) and played Barney the asylum orderly in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002).
  
  
• Giancarlo Giannini (Inspector Pazzi) was in the film Cervellini fritti impanati (1996), which translates as "Fried Crumbed Brains".
  
  
• A poster can be seen near a newsstand for Gladiator (2000), also directed by Ridley Scott.
  
  
• There is a vegetarian cookbook on top of the fridge in the "dinner scene" toward the end of the movie. It's visible when Hannibal pushes Clarice against the fridge.
  
  
• In Florence, where part of the movie was shot, it is possible to buy a sort of tourist guide called: "Hannibal Lecter. Visit the places of the city where he was."
  
  
• In the opening credits of the film you can make out the face of Anthony Hopkins being formed by pigeons until the end of the credits when you can clearly see his face.
  
  
• Actual North Carolina State Troopers were used for the filming. They can be seen both in the search of the Verger home and driving their cruisers.
  
  
• Hannibal asks Pazzi about being demoted from the Il Mostro case. Il Mostro was a serial killer about whom Hannibal gives clues to Pazzi. This was a subplot that was filmed but never used as it was thought to be too complicated.
  
  
• This film was publicized as having the highest body count in a movie
  
  
• The film was first rated "Not under 16" in Germany. But after some test-screenings, many youth organizations and parents criticized the rating and called for a re-rating. After this re-rating by the FSK (the MPAA in Germany), it now is rated "Not under 18". Similarly, in Australia the film originally received an MA15+ classification but it was changed a week after released to R18+ due to protests.
  
  
• In the scene in the Italian police station, the soccer match on TV is from England and involves Aston Villa. Their player Julian Joachim is seen in close-up.
  
  
• According to the film's cinematographer John Mathieson, three separate endings were filmed. The filmmakers, unsure as to whether the ending of Thomas Harris' novel would work for the movie, filmed three versions: one for Harris, one for producer Dino De Laurentiis, and one for director Ridley Scott.
  
  
• The baby that Clarice Starling washes blood off - just after the shootout sequence - is animatronic.
  
  
• After Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme dropped out, Anthony Hopkins was very reluctant in returning to play Lecter, and producers considered 'Tim Roth' as a replacement.
  
  
• Mason Verger's mansion is also seen in Ri¢hie Ri¢h (1994) as the Rich Mansion.
  
  
• The Verger role was originally offered to Christopher Reeve, who declined the part.
  
  
• The dollar serial numbers are the same for at least three bills: G16134024A.
  
  
• Several of the extras in the movie and some minor roles in the Florence scenes were recruited by Anthony Hopkins. He also helped to secure some locales for shooting.
  
  
• According to an interview with producer Martha De Laurentiis in The Guardian, Gary Oldman demanded to share star billing alongside Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. When the producers denied him this, he threatened to quit the film but later angrily demanded to have no billing at all. During pre-production, producer Dino De Laurentiis announced Oldman's involvement at a press conference "just so we couldn't deny that he was in the movie". In the original theatrical release, Oldman is uncredited but in the VHS and DVD releases his name was added to the closing credits. However, in an interview with IGN Filmforce, Oldman told a different story stating: "[W]e thought that as I'm unofficially the man of many faces, you know, of Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula, and Sid Vicious, and Beethoven, we thought that I would be... I'm playing the man with no face. So we just had a bit of fun with it. We thought it would be great. The man with no face and no name, and sort of do it anonymously. It's no secret that I'm in the film. We just had fun with it, really."
  
  
• David Mamet's adaptation of the novel was changed entirely by Steven Zaillian. But Mamet still retained a co-writer credit, in accordance with WGA regulations.
  
  
• The 500lb man-eating hogs featured in Hannibal were selected by Ridley Scott from an audition of over 6,000 other hogs. They were purchased from a farmer, Chaloem Pasak, who lives north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
  
  
• Originally, a teaser poster released in the UK had a picture of Lecter (Hopkins) with a "skin mask" covering the right side of his face, ala the infamous escape scene in "Silence of the Lambs" (1991). The poster was quickly pulled from advertisement, as it was seen as being "too shocking and disturbing" for the public.
  
  
• The phone number in regards to the $3,000,000 Hanibal Lector award on the FBI web site is listed as 1-212-555-0118. Once he calls this number Pazzi is referred to a lawyer in Geneva, his number is 004123317. The last digit (or maybe first) is not heard.
  
  
• In the scene where Pazzi washes the blood off of his hands at the fountain, the statue that the water comes out of is a reference to the pigs used in the "pig-massacre" scene.
  
  
• David Fincher was first slated to direct the film but dropped out.
  
  
• The Italian servant in the Sardinia scene is actually the onsite painter with work clothes on, not a costume. The painter was working on adding cement to the fountain in the courtyard and had the half sheet on to keep cement off her clothes. When Director Ridley Scott came through to do the phone call scene... they added her as the servant because she looked like authentic. Lines were given but due to painter's southern accent, the decision was made to have no verbal from her. Also most of crew ended up being used all over the film, for example, the tattooed fish market girl is also the set dresser.
  
  
• Margot Verger (Mason's sister), Ardelia Mapp, and Dr. Doemling were all major characters removed from the film adaptation of Hannibal but some of Domeling's and Margot's dialogue ended up in the film spoken by Cordell and Mason.
  
  
• Julianne Moore takes over the role of Clarice from Jodie Foster. Just two years before, both Moore and Foster appeared in remakes in which they took over a role from Deborah Kerr. Moore appeared in The End of the Affair (1999), and Foster appeared in Anna and the King (1999).
  
  
• Originally, it was hoped that this film would re-unite the principal players from The Silence of the Lambs (1991). It turned out that only Anthony Hopkins and Frankie Faison returned for this film. However, it turned out to be a reunion for Hopkins anyway, as he had previously worked with Julianne Moore in Surviving Picasso (1996) and Gary Oldman in Dracula (1992).
  
  

• SPOILER: Ray Liotta actually ate dark chicken meat during the "brain-eating scene".
  
  
• SPOILER: During the brain-eating sequence there is a small boar's-head trophy mounted on the wall just above and behind Ray Liotta; another reference to the pig massacre scene.
  
  
• SPOILER: A special animatronic puppet of Ray Liotta was used for some parts of the brain-eating scene. Liotta himself has said that he's not sure exactly which shots are actually him or the puppet.
  
  
• SPOILER: In the book, Mason Verger died when his sister shoved an eel down his throat. As this ending was considered radically violent, the character of Verger's sister was written out of the final screenplay, and Verger's death altered to take place in the wild boar scene. The eel, however, does make a brief appearance in a scene between Verger and Clarice.
  
  
• SPOILER: The idea of eating a living person's brain as punishment is a reference to Dante's inferno where Count Ugolino does this to Archbishop Ruggieri in hell. This makes sense because Lecter/Fell is depicted as Dante expert in this movie.
  
  

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