Rewind to 1991. Jonathan Demme makes a horror film that goes well beyond horror clichés and bad acting to win five Oscars including the coveted Best Picture gold. Though Demme and stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins already had great careers behind them, this film put them over the top and to this day, Hopkins is often remembered as the guy who loved to take in a little “liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.” The Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant film and the mediocre (and just plain bad) follow-ups can’t detract from that fact. And there have been some very bad moments in this franchise.

Ridley Scott’s entry was a disaster (even though it did introduce Julianne Moore as Clarice which brought an entirely different dimension to the character) and then there was Red Dragon that, although it too was a disappointment, introduced Francis Dolarhyde and a back tattoo that would make the most dedicated ink aficionado envious. Easily the worse of the bunch is Peter Webber’s Hannibal Rising which introduced us to a young Lecter (it’s too bad the film didn’t live up to the creepy look of its lead).

Apparently we haven’t had enough of Lecter (though I present the previous paragraph as proof otherwise) because Anthony Hopkins and Ridley Scott are talking about revisiting the character. Along for the ride this time in the role of Clarice is Cate Blanchett. Admittedly, this has all sorts of the right pedigree but so have some of the other entries in the franchise and none of them lived up to expectation so what’s to say that this one will be any different? And I may be missing something here but has Thomas Harris written another novel because the last time I checked, he did his last bit of damage to the character in 2006.

I don’t know where they’re going with this and as much I’d love to say that I’m not interested, I simply can’t walk away from Blanchett and Scott together. Hopefully this time around they’ll be able to defy the odds though I won’t be making any bets on that long shot.