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Here’s Why CBS’ ‘Silence of the Lambs’ Sequel Can Mention Buffalo Bill – But Not Hannibal Lecter
“I’m still trying to understand how the rights are divided,” Alex Kurtzman tells EWTim Baysinger | December 17, 2020 @ 10:55 AM
Brooke Palmer/CBS
CBS’ upcoming “Silence of the Lambs” sequel, “Clarice,” will have a Hannibal Lecter-sized hole in it.
Despite taking place a year after the events of the film, the CBS series will not actually mention Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic serial killer by name and it’s all due to a confusing rights issue.
“I’m still trying to understand how the rights are divided,” executive producer Alex Kurtzman told Entertainment Weekly. “But it’s been quite liberating because we have no interest in writing about Hannibal not because we didn’t love the films and the show, but because it was done so well by so many people that it didn’t feel fresh for us.”
The Silence of the Lambs. But as it turns out, CBS s new series
Clarice revolving around the young FBI profiler at the heart of Jonathan Demme s adaptation of Thomas Harris novel of the same name
will not be mentioning her most famous consultant.
The reason? As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the rights to Harris characters have been divided between MGM and the Dino De Laurentiis Company. Thus, the CBS show will be able to feature all the characters that NBC s
Hannibal was unable to during its three-season run. This includes the titular Clarice herself (Rebecca Breeds), her crime-fighting colleague Ardelia Mapp (Devyn Tyler), Deputy Assistant Attorney General Paul Krendler (Michael Cudlitz), and serial killer Buffalo Bill the very reason for her team up with Lecter in the first place among others. So while Clarice s experiences with Hannibal do inform her past within the new series, and he does still remain at large, he will not, and cannot be mentioned by name.