COME DINE WITH ME? "HANNIBAL' IS WELL PREPARED!

Gourmet delights!  Mads Mikkelsen is the new HANNIBAL. Image: NBC.

To millions of fans worldwide, Anthony Hopkins will forever more be remembered, even admired, for his humorously chilling performance as the intelligent, intuitive, yet ultimately murderous cannibal Doctor Hannibal Lecter in three enjoyable (one classic) adaptations of iconic author's Thomas Harris's literary creation/horror-thriller sensation of the nineties.

But with this new "re-imagining" of the character, now played with sharp-suited, creepily understated menace by the terrific Dutch actor Mads Mikkelsen, best known for his performance as the card playing, bloody tear-drop eyed villain Le Chiffre in Daniel Craig's first James Bond outing: Casino Royale, it looks like fresh blood may be just what the doctor ordered in our land of TV ratings and series format fatigue, as HEROES writer Brian Fuller brings us his new thirteen episode perspective of horror and very dark humour with HANNIBAL, set before Lecter's ultimate capture and eventual escape witnessed in Harris's RED DRAGON and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Already on the path of personal discovery regarding human cuisine, Lecter's pre-incarceration reputation as a top forensics psychiatrist proves considerable, especially when he's called on to help the FBI and its top agents find serial killers of a similar nature to him, if not quite so erudite and clever at keeping their identities and nightmare desires so secret. It's all becomes a twisted game within a game for the Doctor, enjoying the thrill of the chase, and discovering what makes his new work colleagues tick in order to destroy them in the future, should the need arise.

Hannibal TV Series - Full Length Trailer - YouTube

With a strong regular series cast including Brit-star Hugh Dancy as Lecter's crime fighting colleague/ profiler Will Graham - the man who ultimately discovers the truth about Lecter, and ex-CSI'er Laurence Fishburne as his boss, Jack Crawford, plus later guest stars including Gillian Anderson, the series looks glossy and well-paced, with Mikkelsen surely a brilliant piece of casting. I'm not the greatest fan of modern Hollywood's continuing fascination, often desperation, in recycling classic films and TV series with re-imaginings, but I will at least be watching the premiere episode of HANNIBAL on SKY LIVING HD next Tuesday in the hope that this has a chance of becoming something special on a weekly basis, alongside my dining of favva Beans and a nice chianti!