Hannibal might not debut on NBC until midseason but it should definitely already be on everybody's radar. The new series from Gaumont International Television is not only being developed by Pushing Daisies' Bryan Fuller but also features (just) the beginnings of a really exciting ensemble. Based on characters created by Thomas Harris, and taking place before the events of "Red Dragon," the television adaptation already stars Hugh Dancy as FBI agent Will Graham as well as Mads Mikkelsen is the iconic role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
And joining the Emmy nominee and Cannes' Best Actor, respectively, is Emmy winning and Academy Award nominated actor Laurence Fishburne. I told you Hannibal was assembling an exciting cast to re-imagine the early exploits of the crime solving duo of Graham and Lecter for the small screen. As for his role, TVLine reports that Fishburne could potentially play Jack Crawford, the head of the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI played by Scott Glenn in Jonathan Demme's Oscar killer Silence of the Lambs as well as Dennis Farina in Michael Mann's Manhunter and Harvey Keitel in Brett Ratner's Red Dragon.
NBC has yet to confirm that he'll play that specific part but the casting makes sense and he can certainly bring the agent's common-sense gravitas needed to counterbalance Lecter's bourgeois (and demented) intellectual. Crawford is actually a very integral role, serving as mentor to Graham as well as one of the (eventual) key antagonists for Lecter, and I'm excited to see Fishburne, Dancy and Mikkelson bring the triangle to life. Fishburne was recently working as a cop on TV, putting in a shift on C.S.I. after William Peterson (coincidentally, the Will Graham of Manhunter) and before Ted Danson, so he should be more than prepared for the role. Hannibal's coming midseason on NBC.
