Hannibal Rising (2007)

After the death of his parents during World War II, young Hannibal Lecter moves in with his beautiful aunt and begins plotting revenge on the barbarians responsible for his sister's death.

Director:

Peter Webber

Writers:

Thomas Harris (screenplay), Thomas Harris (novel)

Stars:

Gaspard Ulliel, Rhys Ifans, Gong Li

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aaran Thomas	...	Young Hannibal
Gaspard Ulliel	...	Hannibal Lecter
Gong Li	...	Lady Murasaki
Helena-Lia Tachovská	...	Mischa Lecter
Richard Leaf	...	Father Lecter
Dominic West	...	Inspector Popil
Rhys Ifans	...	Vladis Grutas
Michelle Wade	...	Nanny
Richard Brake	...	Enrikas Dortlich
Martin Hub	...	Lothar
Ingeborga Dapkunaite	...	Mother Lecter
Kevin McKidd	...	Petras Kolnas
Joerg Stadler	...	Berndt
Stephen Walters	...	Zigmas Milko
Ivan Marevich	...	Bronys Grentz

Storyline

Mischa and Hannibal, baby brother and sister, are inseparable; it is their love for each other that ties their bond. Their companionship is forever binding, until, with their family, while hiding from the Nazi war machine a twisted set of circumstance sets the pace for a most vicious attack on the future of one Hannibal Lecter for the sworn vengeance for the brutal killing of his baby sister. Years later, we find Hannibal, the teenager, setting up in Paris, and living with his aunt Lady Murasaki Shikibu and studying at medical school here he finds his forte. Still searching for his sister's murderers, still bitter and still ever hopeful of satisfying his desire for retribution. This chance arrives, and soon we are to learn that for a pound of flesh lost a pound of flesh must be repaid. This is the horrific tale of justice and honor, a young man's growing pains that will have the guilty paying with more than just flesh and bone. This is the up and rising tale of the young Hannibal, ...

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Plot Keywords:

faked death | medical student | 1950s | 1940s | cannibalism | 

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Taglines:

Wie alles begann (How everything began)

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong grisly violent content and some language/sexual references

Did You Know?

Trivia

Thomas Newman was considered as a possible composer for this film.

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Goofs

The bottle of sodium thiopental has the entire label printed in French, except for the words "sodium thiopental" themselves which are in English instead of the French "thiopental sodique".

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Quotes

[first lines]
Hannibal 8yrs: Hide quickly! Run away! Quick! This way! Quickly! Down to the lake.
[giggling, drawing on dock]
Hannibal 8yrs: M... for Mischa.

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Alternate Versions

For the German retail market a cut version was created (based on the theatrical version) which misses ca. 13 minutes. This version is rated "Not under 16". Theatrical and US-Unrated version are also available with a "Not under 18" rating but have some sales restrictions.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Unnecessary Origin Stories (2020)

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Soundtracks

Goldberg Variations BWV 988
Variation No. 1 - Aria
Written by Johann Sebastian Bach (as J.S. Bach)
Public Domain
Performed by Glenn Gould
(p) 1955 SONY BMG Music Entertainment Inc.
Licensed courtesy of SONY BMG Commercial Markets (UK)

User Reviews

Better Left Unwatched

This is an unfortunate addition to the franchise, which to be honest, should have been left with Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs. Since then? Stuff that has made people money, but not much else.

The story line (and don't think there are any spoilers here, but always beware, sometimes I think the smallest fact ruins a movie) revolves around Hannibal's experiences during WWII, and some particularly nasty Nazis, Russians, and others. They give rise to some anger management problems for the poor wretched kid.

But there is a major strange disconnect between this "prequel" and the movies it is supposed to precede. I don't know about anyone else, but I never even considered the possibility that Hannibal Lecter was of eastern European descent. Just me, sure, I guess. But, what? Guess he's supposed to be brilliant, and so maybe Anthony Hopkins doing a bad Maryland accent can be excused because he was covering up a bad Lithuanian accent.

Problem is more basic though, bad plotting, weird events, bad acting, nothing really having to do with the other movies except cannibalism. And even that is strained.

Lecter is supposed to be evil, but here he's just not very good.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Germany] Official site [France]

Country:

UK Czech Republic France Italy USA

Language:

English German Russian

Release Date:

9 February 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hannibal 4

Filming Locations:

Brno, Czech Republic

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,051,650, 11 February 2007

Gross USA:

$27,670,986

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$82,169,884

Company Credits

Production Co:

Young Hannibal Productions, Carthago Films S.a.r.l., Dino De Laurentiis Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min 131 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1