British director Peter Weber always had his work cut out resurrecting Hannibal the Cannibal for a fifth time in cinemas. As feared, Hannibal Rising "pales in comparison to The Silence Of The Lambs" despite a script that was adapted by Thomas Harris from his own novel. Critics dismissed the film as a series of cheap thrills and on its initial release, only took a small bite out of the global box office.

Preparing the Ingredients

A slightly gorier cut of the film is accompanied by more deleted footage and a couple of featurettes on DVD. Weber and company explain why they wanted to revisit the story of Hannibal Lecter in Origin Of Evil, citing his iconic status and far reaching influence in literature and films. Even so, Weber reveals that French thesp Gaspard Ulliel took a lot of convincing to accept the role. The young actor himself admits that he was wary of following in the footsteps of Anthony Hopkins. In the closing minutes of this featurette there's also a quick behind-the-scenes look at stunts, swordplay and set design.

Bizarrely the 'Making Of' featurette reveals very little about the nuts and bolts of the film, instead giving time to the actors to reflect on their roles (groan…). There's also a chance for all involved to massage each other's egos. Gong Li (who plays love interest Lady Murasaki Shikibu) pays a backhanded compliment to her co-star, remarking on his "very special eyes," that are "very cold." (Nice.) If it's fiery passion you're looking for, producer Dino De Laurentiis has it in spades. He rocks in his chair, waving a lit cigar and exclaims that, "The war! The war create the monster!" Unfortunately he's short on searing insights.

Leave To Simmer

Weber explains his approach to the story in a commentary with Dino De Laurentiis' wife and co-producer Martha De Laurentiis. He calls it "an adult fairytale" and travelled across Europe to seek out locations redolent with the "gothic" ambience of Harris' novel. Apparently, he had loads of time to go trekking in Lithuania and the Czech Republic because, as De Laurentiis explains, they had to wait months for Gong Li to wrap up on the long-delayed Miami Vice. There are a few interesting notes on visual effects too, but this DVD is really crying out for contribution from Thomas Harris. Unfortunately he is notoriously camera shy.

Ten deleted scenes are lean on dialogue, heavy on atmosphere and hardly edifying at all. We see a few more snippets of Lecter's travels across Europe, Gong Li looking wistful and Dominic West narrowing his eyes with the kind of haughty, nostril-flaring suspicion only an English actor playing a French police inspector can muster.

While there are occasional points of interest in the commentary, this DVD fails to provide a satisfying dissection of Hollywood's favourite slash 'n' hack man.

EXTRA FEATURES

Hannibal Rising DVD is released on Monday 25th June 2007.