David Bowie Being Courted by NBC to Play Hannibal’s Uncle; Another New Season 2 Character Revealed

Steve Barton   |  

Jun 27, 2013

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Now this… this is some news that we find extremely exciting. According to E! News, an offer has been made by Bryan Fuller and NBC for David Bowie to appear on Season Two of “Hannibal” as a close family member of our resident serial killer.

“We have reached out to David Bowie to see if he’s interested and available,” Fuller revealed to the site. “We would love for him to play Hannibal’s uncle, who is a character from the literature and in the books.” Fuller added, “We don’t have an answer yet,” but he is hopeful Bowie can join the NBC series, which resumes production in August in Toronto.

Hannibal’s uncle, Count Robert Lecter, was killed by Nazis in the books, but, “Since our timeline is a little more present, there’s a little bit of J.J. Abrams-style alternate universe storytelling where he could still be alive,” Fuller explains.

Another pivotal role in Season Two will be that of Barney, an orderly at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where Will Grant (Hugh Dancy will be kept captive. “That will be some fun stunt casting,” says Fuller. “I would love to bring in Chi McBride, if he’s available. There are so many great actors I would love to work with.”

Not much of Season Two will be taken from the literature, according to Fuller. “We’re going to see Will Graham institutionalized, and what we know from Red Dragon, the backstory that is given, which is very, very thin, explains that Will Graham was so psychologically compromised from investigating the Minnesota case that he had to be institutionalized. And that’s sort of one sentence that we can do quite a bit with. As you can see from the first season, we held true to that backstory in a very faithful way, but obviously we took huge liberties in how we interpreted that one sentence. So right now, for Season Two, we are in fresh territory with a chapter that hasn’t even been written by Thomas Harris. It’s exciting.”

“Hannibal” was developed for television by Bryan Fuller, who also serves as writer and executive producer. In addition to Fuller, Martha De Laurentiis, Jesse Alexander, Chris Brancato, Sara Colleton, Katie O’Connell, Elisa Roth, Sidonie Dumas, and Christophe Riandee also serve as executive producers. The series is produced by Gaumont International Television, Dino De Laurentiis Company, and Living Dead Guy Productions and co-commissioned internationally by Sony Pictures Television Networks.

The new season will begin no earlier than midseason.

For more info visit “Hannibal” on NBC.com, “like” “Hannibal” on Facebook, and follow “Hannibal” on Twitter.

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