FILM · 2007 · CZECHIA
Hannibal Rising
24 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (24)
- #001
At around the 49th minute, as Lecter injects himself with sodium thiopental, Johann Sebastian Bach's "Goldberg Variations" plays in the background; it is the same music heard during his escape in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The recording was made by Glenn Gould in 1955. The other films featuring Hannibal Lecter use Gould's 1981 recording.
- #002
Thomas Harris's source novel was published two months before the film's release. He worked on both the script and the novel simultaneously because he feared that a prequel/origin story for Hannibal Lecter would inevitably be written without his involvement. Producer Dino De Laurentiis said, "I tell Thomas: 'If you don't do [the prequel], I'll do it with someone else… I don't want to lose this series. And the audience wants it too…' He said, 'No. I'm sorry.' So I said, 'I'll do it with someone else.' Later he said, 'Let me think about it. I'll come up with an idea.'".
- #003
Actors who tested for the role of Hannibal include Hayden Christensen, Macaulay Culkin, Hugh Dancy, Rupert Friend, Dominic Cooper, Tom Sturridge and Tom Payne.
- #004
The scar on Hannibal's left cheek is actually Gaspard Ulliel's real-life scar. When he was six years old, a doberman was sleeping in a garden and Ulliel jumped on the dog's back and tried to ride it like a horse. The dog struck Ulliel with its claws, leaving a small dimple-like scar on his face. Ulliel said the scar helped him express emotions in his acting.
- #005
At around 1 hour 20 minutes, Stephen Walters is claustrophobic in real life. For this reason, his anxiety as he slowly drowns inside the body preparation tank is quite real and not acted.
- #006
To prepare for the film, Gaspard Ulliel took martial arts lessons and learned how to fight with real samurai swords. He worked for a week with Gong Li and a real kendo teacher.
- #007
At around 1 hour 50 minutes, although it is not stated in the film, according to the novel the film is adapted from, when Hannibal drives off at the end of the film he is heading to Baltimore to study psychology. This sets up the events of Manhunter (1986) and Red Dragon (2002).
- #008
It was initially said that Anthony Hopkins would appear as the narrator in this film, but this did not happen. In a 2016 interview with The Wrap, Hopkins said he regretted appearing in Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002) and that he would never play Hannibal Lecter again.
- #009
In this film the young Hannibal is shown to be left-handed, while in the rest of the saga Sir Anthony Hopkins uses his right hand. Gaspard Ulliel was left-handed in real life, like the character in the books.
- #010
At his audition, Gaspard Ulliel had watched The Silence of the Lambs the day before and observed Anthony Hopkins. While preparing for the role he did not want to copy or imitate Hopkins, so he tried to work on his own with some readings and other films. He also read all of Thomas Harris's books about Hannibal Lecter. Ulliel said he knew the audience would look for certain similarities with Anthony Hopkins, so part of the preparation was observing Hopkins. But the idea was more to pick out a few details in his performance and add them to his own character. Ulliel told RadioFree Entertainment that the film's producers wanted to arrange a meeting between him and Hopkins, but Hopkins was not available at the time and they were unable to do it.
- #011
Hugh Dancy was screen-tested for the role of Hannibal and would later play Will Graham in the TV show Hannibal (2013), the prequel to Manhunter (1986) and Red Dragon (2002).
- #012
In the film's press kit, Dino De Laurentiis said the producers searched for an actor for the role of Hannibal for a long time and were looking for a mysterious face, an attractive young man who could be believable as a killer. After seeing Gaspard Ulliel in the French film A Very Long Engagement (2004), De Laurentiis immediately knew they wanted him to play Hannibal. De Laurentiis and director Peter Webber met Ulliel in Paris, after which Webber shot a screen test with him at De Laurentiis's house, and the producer called the result "stunning." At the time, De Laurentiis told Ulliel he was born to play Hannibal Lecter. After watching the screen test, Webber thought to himself that Ulliel was the only person he could watch for two hours. "He has in him something very special. Something very dark," Webber said.
- #013
This is French actor Gaspard Ulliel's second English-language film and his first leading role. He had previously acted in English in a small role in The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea (2004) and spoke a few lines of English in the short "Le Marais" from the anthology film Paris, Je T'aime (2006). Although he attended a bilingual school in Paris where he learned English as a child, Ulliel was not confident about taking on the role of Hannibal Lecter and hesitated for a long time. Because they had to shoot quite quickly to accommodate Gong Li's schedule, he received only a month and a half of English coaching. Ulliel told Crash magazine in 2006 that he did his best but that working in English was quite difficult and that he had trouble letting go and stopping himself from thinking about his accent.
- #014
The fake blood Hannibal tasted from one of his victims was strawberry-flavored. The cheek Hannibal bites in the final scene was also made of silicone.
- #015
The title Thomas Harris used for the novel/film was The Lecter Variations, inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's "Goldberg Variations," which appears in all the Hannibal Lecter films.
- #016
For the scene in which Hannibal puts the Japanese mask on his face there was only one mask, and it had to fit Gaspard Ulliel's face, with elastic at the back to keep it on. Director Peter Webber wanted the mask to fit perfectly without the elastic, so Ulliel tried to make it a little smaller by pushing in the sides to fit his cheeks, but in the end he broke the mask. Another mask had to be made for the scene.
- #017
There are moments in the film when Hannibal wears a mask similar to the famous one Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal wore in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The first is the Japanese war mask he wears before killing the butcher in Lady Murasaki's attic. The second is when he fights Kolnas, and the roast beef rubbed against his face forms a mask of blood.
- #018
Filming began in October 2005 and was completed in January 2006.
- #019
This is Hannibal Lecter's last film.
- #020
Both Brooke Smith (Catherine Martin in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)) and Kevin McKidd (Petras Kolnas) played doctors on Grey's Anatomy (2005).
- #021
Gong Li plays a Japanese character for the second time as a Chinese actress; the first was as Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).
- #022
Thomas Newman was considered as a possible composer for this film.
- #023
This was Elsa Mollien's debut.
- #024
As Hannibal recalls the trauma, he cuts his thumb and it is stitched. In the close-up his fist is clenched with the thumb sticking out at the top, but in the wide shots his fingers are relaxed and his thumb is curled.
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