Hannibal the Cannibal is back… again. StudioCanal has dropped the trailer for the upcoming re-release of Michael Mann’s Manhunter.
The 1986 thriller is being re-released as Manhunter: The Final Cut to mark the 40th anniversary.
The new 4K restoration arrives in theaters on July 24th in the U.S. and the United Kingdom on September 25th. A home entertainment release is also being planned.
Manhunter was the first film adaptation of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon novel, the debut of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic serial killer.
In this version, he is played by Brian Cox and for some reason spelt “Lektor”.
William Peterson co-stars as former FBI profiler Will Graham who comes out of retirement to find and apprehend serial killer Francis Dolarhyde/The Tooth Fairy (the late Tom Noonan).
In doing so, he must confront the demons of his past and meet with Lecktor, who nearly killed Graham years before. Joan Allen, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, and Kim Greist round out the main cast.
Seeing all the breathless review quotes flashing on the screen amuses me, as the reviews at the time were decidedly less kind.
When Manhunter was released in August 1986, by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, it was a notorious box office bomb, struggling at the box office. It only made $8.6 million in the US.
It is only with hindsight that it has been reassessed and labelled as a cult movie.
Red Dragon was adapted again by Brett Ratner in 2002, and was mined by Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal.
