Hannibal (film) Hannibal (film) Hannibal is a 2001 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1999 novel of the same name. It is the sequel to the 1991 Academy Award–winning film "The Silence of the Lambs" in which Anthony Hopkins returns to his role as the serial killer, Hannibal Lecter. Julianne Moore co-stars, in the role first held by Jodie Foster, as FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The film had a difficult and occasionally troubling pre-production history. When the novel was published in 1999, "The Silence of the Lambs" director Jonathan Demme, screenwriter Ted Tally, and
Clarice Starling revealing Buffalo Bill's identity. Lecter gives her clues in the form of cryptic, riddling information designed to help Starling figure it out for herself. The two grow to respect each other, so when Lecter escapes during a transfer engineered by Chilton to a state prison in Tennessee, Starling feels that he "would consider it rude" to kill her. Starling deduces from Lecter's hints that Buffalo Bill's first victim had a personal relationship with him, and so goes to the victim's home in Belvedere, Ohio, to interview people who knew her. She unknowingly stumbles onto the killer himself, Jame Gumb, who