The overwhelming majority of movies to win the biggest prizes at the Academy Awards don’t tend to launch franchises, but even after The Silence of the Lambs bucked the trend, continuing the adventures of Clarice Starling was something Jodie Foster stayed well clear of.
The third and so far final film to win the ‘Big Five’ at the Oscars after taking home the gongs for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Actress’, and ‘Best Screenplay’, the psychological thriller exploded into the zeitgeist ensured the studio was always going to be keen to return to the world.
The most obvious issue was that because Red Dragon had already been adapted into Michael Mann’s Manhunter, there was no source material to work with. Thomas Harris had yet to pen the next book in his literary series, and producer Dino De Laurentiis was waiting in the wings, ready to pounce as soon as he’d put the finishing touches on the novel.
To offer an indication of just how quickly Hannibal came together, the book hit shelves in June 1999, with production on the feature-length adaptation beginning in May 2000. However, there were several major obstacles to overcome between those two points, most notably Foster and director Jonathan Demme declining the opportunity to return.
Demme didn’t care for the increased violence and gore present in both the book and the screenplay, so he ruled himself out. Foster, meanwhile, was presented with a very lucrative offer that could have reportedly pocketed her $15million, but she wanted to focus her creative energies on things that didn’t involve returning to the well.
It was non-negotiable that Hopkins had to be Hannibal Lecter, but the rest of the Hannibal cast was a lot more fluid. Once Foster was out, Julianne Moore was in, Ridley Scott took over from Demme behind the camera, and the ball was finally rolling.
Hannibal was an unqualified success at the box office after earning over $350 million, but it couldn’t hold a candle to its predecessor. Hannibal and Clarice may have resumed their cat-and-mouse game, but it felt more like a pale imitation of what had come before rather than The Silence of the Lambs 2 everybody was expecting.
Why did Jodie Foster turn down Hannibal?
Ironically, for a movie she never even ended up making. The two-time Oscar winner had been lining up passion project Flora Plum as her next directorial vehicle with an eye on Claire Danes playing the title character, with the production schedule overlapping with Hannibal.
Unfortunately, and not for the first or last time, Flora Plum fell to pieces. By that time, Hannibal was already too far down the road to even consider bringing back the original Clarice, but Foster never saw it as a missed opportunity slipping through her fingers.
It would have paid very well, but as she hinted in an interview with Total Film, she was quietly pleased that regardless of what happened with Flora Plum, it provided her with the ideal opportunity to use it as her excuse for not reprising one of her most famous roles in a movie she wasn’t entirely sold on.
“The official reason I didn’t do Hannibal is I was doing another movie, Flora Plum,” she said. “So I get to say, in a nice, dignified way, that I wasn’t available when that movie was being shot. But Clarice meant so much to Jonathan and me; she really did, and I know it sounds kind of strange to say, but there was no way that either of us could really trample on her.”
Outside of toeing the party line, it’s clear the biggest driving force behind Foster turning down Hannibal was that she didn’t think the story being told was comparable to The Silence of the Lambs, and she didn’t want to undo her work as Clarice by returning for an inferior sequel.
