"Manhunter" cost $15 million to make but returned only $8.6 million at the box office.
Nonetheless, it would earn recognition over the years as the first movie to be made from one of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels, so we have it to thank for such films as "The Silence of the Lambs," "Hannibal," and "Red Dragon" (the 2002 remake of "Manhunter"), as well as the NBC series "Hannibal." Plus, it was the first major appearance in pop culture of a new type of crime fighter, the criminal profiler who uses forensics and psychology to hunt down killers, an innovation that led to such TV dramas as "The X-Files," "Profiler," "Criminal Minds," and the "CSI" franchise, whose flagship series took its leading man, William Petersen, from "Manhunter."
Read on for killer behind-the-scenes details of the making of this seminal cult favorite.
2. For the lead role of FBI profiler Will Graham, the filmmakers considered Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, and Paul Newman. Mann ultimately went with Petersen (below), after seeing him play a relentless sleuth in 1985's "To Live and Die in L.A."
4. Tom Noonan, who won the role of serial killer Francis "The Tooth Fairy" Dolarhyde, made a point of not meeting any of the other actors until his scenes with them; that way, he could cultivate an air of mystery that would make them legitimately frightened of him.
6. Scottish-born Cox took inspiration from Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel. Mann, who had corresponded for years with jailed killer Dennis Wayne Wallace, learned from the convict that he had been obsessed with a woman he barely knew and considered Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" to be their song, which is how Mann picked the sinister-sounding track for the movie's climax.
7. To play Reba McClane, Dolarhyde's blind love interest, Joan Allen (pictured) did research at the New York Institute for the Blind and practiced by walking blindfolded around New York City.
9. Scheduling on the production was so tight that the special effects crew had already left the shoot when it came time to film the climactic gunfight in Dolarhyde's kitchen, so Mann and the rest of the crew had to improvise the FX. They'd blow ketchup through hoses to simulate blood spatter. Mann would toss glass jars so they would shatter as if hit by bullets; Allen has said Petersen caught a shard in the thigh.
10. Noonan spent so much time lying in a pool of fake blood, made from dyed corn syrup, that he got stuck to the floor.
12. At the time Cox was making "Manhunter," he shared an agent with Anthony Hopkins, who was then busy starring in "King Lear" at England's National Theatre. Five years later, when Jonathan Demme cast Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs," Cox was playing Lear at the National Theatre.
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