Hannibal Rising

Hannibal Rising follows the youth of Hannibal Lecter, beginning in Lithuania during the Second World War. After his parents die in the fighting, the boy flees east and later makes his way to France, where he is taken in by his uncle's widow, the Japanese Lady Murasaki. Growing into a gifted medical student, he remains haunted by the atrocities he witnessed and by the loss of his younger sister, and the desire for revenge pushes him toward a path of violence.

The film was directed by Peter Webber, whose earlier work was Girl with a Pearl Earring, released in 2003, and who went on to make Emperor, Earth: One Amazing Day and DRAGN. Thomas Harris wrote the screenplay, adapting his own novel, while Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis and Tarak Ben Ammar produced. Gaspard Ulliel plays Hannibal, with Gong Li as Lady Murasaki, Dominic West as Inspector Popil and Rhys Ifans as Vladis Grutas. Aaran Thomas appears as the young Hannibal.

It was released on 6 February 2007 and runs 121 minutes. Against a budget of about 75 million US dollars, it took roughly 82 million worldwide. On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 4 out of 10 from 148 reviews, while on TMDB it averages 6.3 out of 10 from 2,468 votes.