Producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis have set Peter Webber to direct Behind the Mask, the Hannibal Lecter prequel being scripted by author Thomas Harris already set for a release sometime during the summer of 2006.
It was only announced last week, but talk of the story started over a year ago, and the novel will bow next fall while production on the film is expected to begin in May.
Currently Universal and MGM will be the first two studios with an option to pic up the flick seeing how they split production on the last two Lecter films Red Dragon and Hannibal respectively.
Behind the Mask is an origin story described by De Laurentiis as “a revenge story that shows why he became a cannibal… he kills people that audiences want to see killed. So while there is a natural revulsion, the sympathy toward Hannibal remains.”
Also in the same Variety article the De Laurentiises continue to stress their Alexander the Great biopic Alx is not dead yet, and they are still determined to make the film, but are content to wait for the dust to clear on the Oliver Stone-directed Alexander, which bows this month.
