Hannibal Rising: Why is Hollywood Destroying One of the All-Time Great Monsters?

So, the new flick Hannibal Rising is out and while I understand more than most that the business of Hollywood is business, WHY IN THE HELL ARE THEY DESTROYING ONE OF THE ALL-TIME GREAT VILLAINS AND MONSTERS IN ALL OF FILM HISTORY?!?!?!!! I blame Anthony Hopkins, but more on that in a little while. Some back story first...

Way back in the day, Thomas Harris wrote some fairly good thrillers like Black Sunday and Red Dragon which both were turned into films. Black Sunday became a 1977 John Frankenheimer flick starring Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern. Red Dragon became Manhunter, was one of director Michael Mann's (Collateral, Miami Vice, Last of the Mohicans) first feature films, and starred CSI's William Petersen as well as featuring an impressive turn by Brian Cox as Dr. Hannibal Lecktor.

Manhunter was a stylish, creepy, ahead of its time flop and when Harris wrote a follow-up called Silence of the Lambs, producer Dino De Laurentiis wanted no part of the sequel and virtually gave away the rights to Orion Pictures. In 1990, Orion wanted to focus on promoting the Oscar chances of its Western epic Dances with Wolves and pushed Silence from a late 1990 release to January of '91. Silence went on to Oscar buzz of its own and carried it through the entire year, winning the big five awards: Best Picture, Director(Johnathan Demme), Actor(Anthony Hopkins as a respelled Hannibal LECTER), Actress(Jodie Foster), and adapted screenplay(Ted Tally.)