Silence of the Lambs: Looking Back at the Only Horror Film to Win Best Picture at the Oscars — Episode 146

In 1988, author Thomas Harris released what became his most critically acclaimed novel that had critics calling the book “utterly gripping” and describing his character Hannibal Lecter as nothing short of “pure evil.”  Even before the book hit store shelves, Orion Pictures and actor Gene Hackman purchased the rights to develop into a film. Hackman eventually backed out of the project, but a screenplay adaptation from Ted Tally was already in the works so he was encouraged to finish.  Jonathan Demme was eventually brought onto direct the film and he immediately fell in love with the book and then the screenplay with production starting only a few months later.  The film starred Jodie Foster as an ambitious young FBI agent tasked with exploring the mind of famed psychopath played by Anthony Hopkins with hopes of earning his help to track down a serial killer named Buffalo Bill… In the latest episode of Rewind of the Living Dead, we’re going to eat some liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti as we look back at the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs”…