The film rights of Thomas Harris' first book in the series "Hannibal Lesseter", "Red Dragon", were purchased by Warner Bros. and adapted to the big screen by Michael Mann with Manhunter. Although his vision made a solid movie (with beautiful William Petersen in the lead role), it was a treasurer when he came out in 1986. The Woulde took five years to make his sequel to the silver screen, as no studio wanted to touch Harris at the time. When Orion Picks finally acquired it, many complications emerged, making it difficult for his development period.

According to a broad interview (via the deadline) With Harris's book agent Robert Bookman, screenwriter Ted Tali and director Athonan Dem, after Harris published the "Silence of the Lambs", he had the right to sell "a license for a picture, but will have to change the names of the characters and places". At first, Ein Hackman bought the rights (along with Arthur Crimea in Orion), wanting to direct the adaptation and the Starvers as a proofreader. In the end, he turned out because one of his daughters was talking about it. Before withdrawing and selling half of the rights of the film in Crimea, he gave Tali to start writing the script, based on their discussions and notes.

Concerned and prominent, Tali was already the third time with the script (for which he had not yet paid) for a film that had no director or team. Orion co-founder and producer, Mike Medavo, assured Tali, however, that everything will work; He just needs to continue writing. Surely, as soon as the script is completed, the studio received the director of the ship on the ship. But, as Bookman recalls, there was still a problem with the use of the name Hannibal Lesseter in the film based on Harris's initial contract. He explained,

"The question of Hannibal Neuteter and Dino de Laurentis still emerged (the producer who bought the rights for the" red dragon "). They tried to get alternative names, but no one could have thought of a better problem.

Thank God for Dino de Laurentis! At that time, it may have been just a name in a fictional story, but because of this man's easy stance to shorten a deal, we got one of the worst villains in the history of the film. And you can't argue with Bookman, the "silence of the lambs" (and the franchise that created it) would not be the same without the name Hannibal Lesseter.