The iconic character David Lynch almost introduced to cinema: “I got sick of it”
Throughout his career, David Lynch flirted with the mainstream but never fully embraced it. Twin Peaks became a cult hit with a devoted following and a film spinoff, but it always remained too offbeat to be truly mainstream. Even when Lynch ventured into a space epic with his 1984 adaptation of Dune, his vision clashed with studio demands, leading him to largely disown the final cut. Interestingly, during this phase of his career, Lynch was offered the chance to introduce an iconic character to cinema audiences—a project that could have become the most popular film he ever made.
When Lynch signed on the dotted line with mega-producer Dino de Laurentiis to make Dune, he was still a fairly inexperienced filmmaker with only two previous movies to his name: Eraserhead and the Oscar-winning The Elephant Man. This is likely why De Laurentiis was able to convince him to sign a contract tying him to two further films for the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group – and when Lynch had such a bad experience on Dune, those pictures began to look like very unappealing contractual obligations.
When a sequel to Dune failed to materialise, though, Lynch managed to make a passion project for De Laurentiis. Blue Velvet sprang from ideas Lynch had first pondered in 1973, and the producer loved the maverick director’s sinister psychological neo-noir. The movie divided critics because of its dark, divisive content, but it was a financial success and even landed Lynch his second ‘Best Director’ nomination at the Academy Awards.
Lynch had managed to turn that first contractual obligation to his advantage, but this would prove more difficult with the second one. At the time, De Laurentiis had purchased the rights to a hit 1981 novel by an author named Thomas Harris, and he wanted Lynch to adapt it for the screen. The novel was a lurid, suspenseful, and gruesome serial killer thriller named Red Dragon, and it was the first literary appearance of a character who would become a household name: Hannibal Lecter.
Lynch became attached to the project at De Laurentiis’ suggestion but soon found himself souring on the idea. Despite having just made a movie like Blue Velvet, which many considered distasteful and depraved, Lynch wasn’t a fan of Red Dragon’s subject matter and content.
When David Breskin interviewed him for his book Inner Views: Filmmakers in Conversation, Lynch revealed, “I was involved in that a little bit until I got sick of it. I was going into a world that was going to be, for me, real, real violent. And completely degenerate. One of those things: No Redeeming Qualities.”
Lynch wryly added, “The way I was thinking of it, I didn’t want to let it into my country club.”
In the end, Lynch wouldn’t make another movie until 1990’s Wild at Heart, and Twin Peaks debuted that same year on ABC. By walking away from Red Dragon, though, he left the door open for another future cinematic titan to enter the breach and introduce Lecter to the world. Michael Mann, who had also only directed two previous films at that time, signed up to make the film, whose title was changed to Manhunter.
Mann cast Succession’s Brian Cox as the cannibalistic psychiatrist—here spelt “Lecktor”, for some reason—but to everyone’s chagrin, the movie failed to make the impact they had hoped for. It has since been reassessed as a cult classic, but it wouldn’t be until Anthony Hopkins, the scene-stealer, etched himself into the minds of audiences in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs that Lecter truly reached iconic status.
