Disclaimer:The following is the original press release for the HANNIBAL motion picture soundtrack, released by CineMedia Productions on January 31, 2001. The following does not necessarily reflect the views of this website.
For Immediate Release: The Silence Is Broken With HANNIBAL
Decca Records Releases Hans Zimmer Score From The Eagerly Anticipated Sequel To The Silence Of The Lambs On February 6, 2001.
(New York, NY, January 31, 2001) - Based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Harris,HANNIBAL is the eagerly anticipated sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs - winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film stars Sir Anthony Hopkins as the sinister Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Julianne Moore as FBI Agent Clarice Starling. The hauntingly romantic score was written by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, and is to be released February 6, 2001 from Decca Records.
Seven years have passed since Dr. Hannibal Lecter escaped from custody and seven years since FBI Agent Clarice Starling interviewed him in a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. The doctor is now at large in Europe, pursuing his own interests, savoring the scents, the essences of an unguarded world.
But Starling has not forgotten her encounters with Dr. Lecter - his seldom-used voice still haunts her dreams.
Mason Verger remembers Dr. Lecter, too, and is obsessed with revenge. Verger was Dr. Lecter's sixth victim, and though hideously disfigured has survived. Verger soon realizes that in order to draw the doctor out into the open, he must use someone Lecter cannot resist as bait: Clarice Starling.
HANNIBAL reunites acclaimed director Ridley Scott and Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer - both of whom lent their talents to last year's epic, Gladiator.
One of the most prolific composers in Hollywood, Zimmer has garnered multiple Oscar nominations for his film scores - including Rain Man and As Good As It Gets. His music for The Lion King earned him a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar for Best Original Score. Most recently his music for Gladiator won a Golden Globe Award and received a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score.
"This is the best love theme I've ever written," Zimmer says of his music for HANNIBAL. "I keep telling everyone this is a romantic comedy, but nobody believes me." In addition to Zimmer's score, the soundtrack album also includes a classic performance from Bach's Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould and a dramatic, new mini-opera featuring 21-year-old soprano Danielle de Niese. Her career is off to a prodigious start with operatic debuts scheduled in Amsterdam, Paris and Tokyo, as well as engagements with the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony and an upcoming title role appearance at the Metropolitan Opera.
As a finishing touch, three tracks feature the chilling voice of Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter himself!
A joint production of MGM, Universal Pictures, and DEG, HANNIBAL opens in theaters everywhere on February 9, 2001 - ten years after the release of The Silence of the Lambs. Hans Zimmer's hauntingly romantic score perfectly fits the mood of the film and dramatically recreates the excitement and suspense of the screen.
And Now...
...back to our regularly scheduled program...
