Hannibal Rising (2007) on Netflix
In 1944 Lithuania, eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter hides at the family hunting lodge with his sister Mischa. An explosion kills their parents, and Vladis Grutas and his men arrive at the cottage.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.1/10122,466 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes16%
Trailer
Plot summary
During World War II the Baltic region becomes a battlefront, and the Lecter family leaves their castle in Lithuania for a hunting lodge in the woods. After three years the Germans retreat and destroy a Soviet tank stopped at the lodge for water; the blast kills everyone except eight-year-old Hannibal and his younger sister Mischa. The two children survive in the cottage through a bitterly cold winter, until five Lithuanian militiamen led by Vladis Grutas break in to loot the place and find no food there. By 1952 the castle serves as an orphanage, and Hannibal, after a violent clash with a bully, leaves it for Paris and the household of his aunt, Lady Murasaki, who trains him in Japanese sword fighting.
Cast
- Aaran Thomasas Hannibal 8yrs
- Ivan Marevichas Bronys Grentz
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Hannibal Rising (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Two items were stolen from the set: the severed rubber head used when Hannibal cuts off Dortlich's head, and a rubber penis cut from a full-size replica human body used in a scene where Hannibal is working on a body.- Hugh Dancy, Macaulay Culkin, Dominic Cooper and Tom Payne all auditioned for the role of Hannibal Lecter; Dancy would later play Will Graham on the television series Hannibal, which ran from 2013 to 2015.
- Gong Li almost lost the role of Hannibal's Japanese aunt by marriage, Lady Murasaki, because of scheduling conflicts with Miami Vice, so the filming schedule for Hannibal Rising had to be changed to keep her in the film.
SPOILER
Peter Webber approached Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt for the role of the soldier who eats Hannibal's little sister, but another film and a play in Sweden made him turn it down; Webber told him that if Hannibal Rising succeeded he would be cast in a second film about the young Hannibal.- Peter Webber was looking at more obvious choices to play the villain Vladis Grutas until Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, then better known for comic roles, came in: "he came and he didn't audition. He just blew my socks off," Webber said.
- Peter Webber sent Gaspard Ulliel to a medical school in Prague to watch an autopsy class for one day and expected him to be horrified; instead Ulliel came back wanting to watch again the next day, sat through the last three days of the class, and asked to return for the fresh bodies of the next one.
