By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(February 9, 2001) -- With the release of Hannibal, a most intriguing, sophisticated and frightening character steps fully into the spotlight.

The film -- and the best-selling 1999 Thomas Harris novel that inspired it -- make Dr. Hannibal Lecter the central figure after nearly two decades of scene-stealing support. And the rise to pop culture ignominy may continue, as interest rises in even more Hannibal films.

With his genius IQ, genteel manner, undeniable charm and commanding knowledge of cuisine, art, medicine and criminal pathology, the brilliant psychiatrist-turned-cannibal fascinates those around him.

He's much like a modern-day vampire, but unencumbered with age-old myth or silly rules about sunlight and garlic. His horror comes from the real world.

Hannibal Lecter is the brainchild of reclusive writer Thomas Harris. After reporting for the Associated Press from 1968 to 1974, Harris wrote the popular 1976 thriller Black Sunday, about a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl. The piece of pulp fiction offered none of the visceral excitement or intellectual stimulation of the subsequent Lecter novels.

A meticulous writer, Harris published Red Dragon in 1981, The Silence of the Lambs in 1989, and Hannibal in 1999.

Hannibal made his debut with a cameo in Red Dragon. A detective pursues a serial killer, the Tooth Fairy. To gain insight, the cop goes to a high-security mental hospital to visit Hannibal Lecter, a psychopath he had captured. Red Dragon led to Lecter's first film appearance in the adaptation Manhunter. He was played in restrained but scary fashion by English character actor Brian Cox.

In Harris' second Lecter novel, The Silence of the Lambs, detective Clarice Starling questions Lecter for insight into the mentality of a killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill. Hannibal is given several more pages -- and escapes by the novel's end.

Jonathan Demme's 1991 film version was a sensation and went on to become only the third movie to ever sweep the top four Oscar categories: picture, director, actor and actress.

Along the way, Anthony Hopkins' riveting portrayal, opposite Jodie Foster, firmly cemented Hannibal Lecter in the pantheon of screen villains.

Clamoring for a sequel immediately ensued. Hopkins, Demme and Foster all deferred to Harris, waiting to see whether he'd write another.

Finally, in 1999, Harris released Hannibal, a novel that frustrated some critics because of its heightened gore and perverse final chapter. Demme and Foster declined to make the sequel, but Hopkins signed on.

Have we seen the last of the gleeful, bloody gourmand? Hardly.

Harris has made no pronouncements about another book, but Hannibal producer Dino De Laurentiis and Hopkins have discussed a fourth film.

They may return to Red Dragon. Screenwriter Ted Tally, who won an Oscar for scripting Lambs, says he's been approached to write a new film version of Red Dragon, which would focus more on Lecter and let Hopkins reprise the role.

At 63, Hopkins may be too old to play a younger Lecter. However, one Web site is spreading an interesting rumor: Computer technology will make him youthful. Goody, goody.