Only a couple of hours after I posted an article on the details of the new Thomas Harris novel bringing Hannibal Lecter back to the fray, this time in an origin story that preceeds Red Dragon, Variety went ahead and gave us a few more details on bringing “Behind the Mask” to the big screen.
The novel is scheduled to hit book store shelves next fall, but producer Dino De Laurentiis is planning to bring the story to the bigscreen in 2006.
As we previously mentioned Laurentiis also put together Hannibal and Red Dragon and he told Variety that this new story will be about “the creation of a monster” and involve complicated casting.
The story will be set in the 1940s in Europe and will focus on the early years of the famous cannibal and his life as something of a loner with a high IQ who alternates flashes of empathy with outright antipathy toward others.
Laurentiis is thinking of using a casting director out of London and choosing actors who can play a 5-year-old, a 14-year-old and a 20-year-old. The producer believes an English accent will better convey the personality of the Lithuanian-born Lecter than would an American.
