"What do you do with all of your rage?" asks the first teaser for CBS's Silence Of The Lambs sequel series
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As Hannibal Heads long for another serving of Bryan Fuller’s tasty corpse, CBS is hoping the stench of slaughtered lambs will draw them over to their side of the fence. There, fans of Thomas Harris’ infamous cannibal will find his primary antagonist, Clarice Starling, though perhaps not as they remember her. Rebecca Breeds, the Australian actor best known for Pretty Little Liars, will step in for Jodie Foster in the network’s new sequel series, which picks up a year after the events of The Silence Of The Lambs.
The Silence Of The Lambs, published in 1988 before being turned into an iconic 1991 thriller, followed the young FBI trainee as she encountered infamous man-eater Hannibal Lecter in an effort to locate another serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Clarice, described as “a deep dive into the untold personal story” of the title character, finds her older and wiser in the dregs of Washington D.C. “Brilliant and vulnerable, Clarice’s bravery gives her an inner light that draws monsters and madmen to her,” reads a synopsis. “However, her complex psychological makeup that comes from a challenging childhood empowers her to begin to find her voice while working in a man’s world, as well as escape the family secrets that have haunted her throughout her life.”
Today, CBS shared a short teaser for the series. “What do you do with all of your rage?” an ominous voice intones as a dead body is pulled from a ravine. Check it out below.
Clarice was developed by executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, and co-stars Kal Penn, Lucca de Oliveira, and Devyn Tyler. Michael Cudlitz, recently of The Walking Dead, steps into the role of Deputy Assistant Attorney General Paul Krendler. Let’s hope he makes good use of that brain of his, what with what we know of his fate in Harris’ official sequel to Silence Of The Lambs.
Clarice will debut on CBS on Thursday, February 11 at 10 p.m. ET following the conclusion of Star Trek: Discovery.
62 Comments
I’ve been watching Hannibal for the first time, and it’s so strange that what was basically a two-book series has turned into such a (mostly financial, sometimes artistically) fruitful franchise. I’m considering reading the books, but don’t know how engaging it’ll be, having seen Freddie Lounds’ Wild Ride depicted three different ways now.
I thought the first book was great although a lot of Silence fans hated it. The 2nd book is not as good.
As a Michael Mann fan (a Michael Stann) I’m quite fond of Manhunter, so I’m more curious to read Red Dragon than Silence.
Red Dragon is a great book it’s hard to go wrong with any of Harris’ novels he only wrote on average 1 per decade starting with Black Sunday.
It’s very easy to go wrong with Cari Mora.
Haven’t read that one lol
What a truly terrible book. I was stunned. Takes an amazing premise, and executed it in the weirdest, most off-putting way possible.
Isn’t “The Silence of the Lambs” the second book?
Sorry I was referring to the 2 Hannibal books. His complete bibliography is:Black Sunday (1975)Red Dragon (1981)The Silence of the Lambs (1988)Hannibal (1999)Hannibal Rising (2006)Cari Mora (2019)
In my opinion the books are good, above average thrillers, but you’re right, it’s surprising they birthed such an extensive franchise. I would say we have Sir Anthony Hopkins to thank (blame?) for that.
Hannibal is not a good book
Hannibal is…let’s go with awkward.
There’s some genuinely interesting ideas in it, but there’s also a LOT about it that’s pretty bad (and in some cases has gotten worse with age – the TV series did a phenomenal job transforming Margot Verger from an at the time dated stereotype into an actually fleshed out character.)
Like, the entire core idea of the story is fascinating – Clarice having to weigh between a murderous psychopath (albeit a principled one), a corrupt bureau, and a straight-up monster each out to use her for their own ends while struggling to maintain her ideals even as the rest of the world seems determined to throw them back in her face.That as a core is an interesting idea, but it feels like Harris can’t really figure out how to properly thread Clarice through it without either betraying her character or pulling a bullshit Hail Mary.
…and so we instead get that ending. Which, to this day, may be one of the few times I’ve seriously debated throwing a book I was reading.
Overall, I’d argue Hannibal Rising is still the nadir of the series, but when Hannibal whiffs it, it REALLY whiffs it.
You’re right, believe it or not I kind of forgot about that one and Hannibal Rising… but Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs were both good. Not incredible, not high literature, but above average thrillers.
I think they would have been just as good if they continued with Brian Cox as Lecter
I liked his performance better than Hopkins’. There was just something so grody about him.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been familiar with Hopkins’ Lecter and all the hacky impersonations of such long before I even saw the film, but the performance always struck me as a bit too hammy to be really menacing. Hannibal, despite being over the top in its own way, felt like it sold that menacing aspect much better.
What I mostly remember from Hannibal was “how on God’s green Earth did they get this onto a major network?”
By covering the ass crack with blood!
And it all started with ‘Black Sunday’. Serial killers are more fun than terrorists bombing the Superbowl I guess.
Tom Clancy’s “The Sum of All Fears” really seemed like a ripoff of Black Sunday.
I liked the whole book series aside from Hannibal Rising.
From the sound of things, Harris didn’t even like Hannibal Rising.
The way Dino DeLaurentiis framed it in an interview at the time, he basically told Harris “I want to keep this franchise going. If you don’t write this, I’ll find someone else who will.”
End result being a book very clearly written under protest.
“Hannibal” the book is batshit! I don’t want to spoil anything but the movie is only about 10% as crazy. It’s like Harris was testing to see how far he could push it.
I remember being on the alt.horror usenet group when that book came out and even these guys, full-time horror nerds, could not believe the insane plot of this book.
“What do you do with all of your rage?” asks the first teaser for CBS’s Silence Of The Lambs sequel seriesDespite all my rage, I am still just a lamb in a cage.
I keep all my Rage in a playlist on Spotify…isn’t that what everybody does?
Despite all its rage it still puts the lotion on its skin.
Ah yes, from Woolly Dolly and the Infinite Silence.
Wait… is Hannibal not a character in this show? Clarice as a character without the Clarice-Hannibal dynamic makes this show just sound like a generic Criminal Minds spin off.
To make it interesting Clarice will be a single gal in NYC and she’ll have to juggle her career, her friends, her nagging mom and deciding between which of three perfect suitors she wants to marry.
Plot twist: in season 2, she falls for a hometown hunk in the hills of West Virginia who teaches her the real meaning of Christmas.
“Why are the good ones always married, gay, or serial killers?”
And she’ll live in a two bedroom overlooking Central Park.
Bring back Ardelia as her best friend, but sassier!
Turns out her lamb never was slaughtered. The show will be a twisted buddy cop comedy. “Can a woman and a sheep share an apartment without driving each other crazy”.
As I understand it, the adaptation rights to the characters introduced in the novel Red Dragon, including Hannibal, Will Graham, and Jack Crawford, were sold separately from the rights to the characters introduced in Silence of the Lambs, which include Clarice, Paul Krendler, Jame Gumb, and Benjamin Raspail. That’s why the Hannibal TV series couldn’t use any of the Lambs characters—the planned episode featuring Gumb and Raspail was changed into the story featuring a serial-killing cellist and his friend, and the gender-swapped character of Paula Krendler was changed to the anagrammatical Kade Prurnell.
Clarice seems to be caught on the other side of the divide, conspicuously omitting any direct reference to the Red Dragon characters while everyone from Lambs gets at least a shout-out.
Thanks, that all makes a ton of sense and I figured it had to do with rights. (And thanks to Surprise Surprise as well).But it still only answers the question why Hannibal isn’t in the show, not why they’re bothering to making a show about Clarice without Hannibal (although I guess the answer to both questions is money).Did not know that about the cellist episode but I’m certainly with the one we ended up with!
I think they have the rights to use Hannibal, my understanding is that Paramount (?) owns the rights to all the characters in The Silence of the Lambs and have exclusive rights to Clarice and Buffalo Bill because they debuted in TSotL, but NBC’s Hannibal was based on (although not until the second half of the last season) Red Dragon so they were able to get the rights to Hannibal and Jack Crawford since they first showed up in that novel. Red Dragon was adapted before by another studio, so it probably would have been a legal quagmire, but it’s surprising that Paramount didn’t secure the rights to characters first appearing in Hannibal (the novel, not the aforementioned series) as well.
ETA: Hannibal will probably show up as an end of the season cliffhanger or something.
But what if this Clarice has, like, a photographic memory?
It’s peak CBS that they think the interesting part of the story was the police procedural.
This being CBS, I’m expecting a mashup of CSI and Criminal Minds. In other words, not especially great, but somehow lasting 18 seasons and developing nearly as many spinoffs.
season 8: Clarice and Jack Crawford have a babyseason 9: Clarice and Hannibal have a babyseason 13: the two kids square off in a pre-K battle of wits over on Freeform
season 15: Paul Krendler becomes a robotHow about a crazy wedding? Moe gets a cell phone?
Season 14: A crossover special where Young Sheldon helps them catch the killer.
I don’t like the Big Bang Theory or Young Sheldon but I would actually watch this
Barney and Mason Verger team up to solve mysteries in Facing Justice!
“What do you do with all your rage?”“I say goodbye… and ride some horses.” (cue music)
Featuring Jack Black as Hannibal LECTAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.
In a timeline that includes “Hannibal”, not sure why I should care about another broadcast networks stab at Hannibal Lector. It’s gonna be compared to both the original and Hannibal, and it’s not going to live up to either.
“Clarice was developed by executive producers Alex Kurtzman”Oh noooooooooooo
I dunno – I’m definitely in the “Bring Back ‘Hannibal’” camp, but this might be OK.
I was going to say Clarice doesn’t have any rage, but then I remembered her childhood and chip on shoulder, if that’s what they’re referring to. Is the line from the book and about her? Clarice Starling is one of the great charcters in this genre. I only read Silence last year and was really taken with her. Everybody talks about Hopkins as the standout in the movie, but it wouldn’t have worked without Foster playing this wonderful character wonderfully. This actress on the show will have huge shoes to fill, no pressure. Maybe she’ll be just as good as Mads Mikkelsen was playing Lecter. The producers definitely should aim for that.
Rebecca Breeds, the Australian actor best known for Pretty Little Liars, will step in for Jodie Foster What could possibly go wrong?
I’m sending this back to the kitchen. I’d ordered more Hannibal.
I’m using my rage to put rats in cages.
“What do you do with all of your rage?” asks Fred Rogers and Daniel Tiger.
Silence Of The Lambs: The coming of rage story of a young midwestern lesbian; balancing the responsibility of a government job and a weird pseudo-romantic sort-of relationship with a psychiatrist/culinary enthusiast . . .
who may have a dark secret . . .
“a deep dive into the untold personal story”
Hard pass.
If it’s not Hannibal, frankly, I don’t want it.
A SOTL sequel series!That’s good!…on CBS.That’s bad!
Amazes me that it took so long for someone to actually do this.