It sounds like the plot of the next installment in the "Silence of the Lambs" series: Cannibalistic killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter comes to Charlottesville to visit the alma mater of his "Silence of the Lambs" cohort, FBI agent and ingenue Clarice Starling.
It's not happening on the big screen; it's happening right here on Grounds. Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins will be the featured guest at this year's Virginia Film Festival, Oct. 26-29.
Hopkins will receive the 2000 Virginia Film Award for his work over a 32-year film career featuring many memorable roles, including Hannibal Lecter, the maniacal psychologist who manipulates Jodie Foster's mind in the 1991 Academy Award-winning thriller based on Thomas Harris' book.
"The response from the Drama department has been electric," Virginia Film Festival director Richard Herskowitz said. "He's one of the greatest actors we've had."
Past featured guests of the festival include actors Sidney Poitier, Sigourney Weaver and Jason Robards.
"We've favored actors who cross over stage and screen," Herskowitz said. "We want to engage them with drama students who are learning how to act on stage but would like to be in film."
Hopkins received his first big break as an actor when he joined Sir Lawrence Olivier's National Theatre in London in 1965. He also starred on Broadway in the National Theatre's production of Peter Schaeffer's play "Equus" in 1974.
Hopkins has a current connection with the Virginia film industry. "Hannibal," the sequel to "Lambs," just wrapped shooting in nearby Montpelier and Richmond. He will start shooting "Hearts in Atlantis," an adaptation of Stephen King's 1999 short story collection, in Staunton later this year.
The theme of the 2000 festival is "Animal Attraction." The event will feature screenings of classic films dealing with animal and human subjects such as Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963), "An American Werewolf in London" (1981) and "Harvey" (1950).
Festival-goers can see Hopkins in person at 11 p.m. on Oct. 28 in Culbreth Theater, when he will introduce a showing of "The Silence of the Lambs."
"I'm very excited for this year's festival," said fourth-year College student Andrew Blossom, co-president of Off-Screen, a student film society. "The future of the festival is the opportunity for U.Va. students to interact with actors like Anthony Hopkins."
Hopkins' first film role was Richard the Lionhearted in the critically acclaimed 1968 British film "A Lion in Winter." Since then, he has appeared in over 50 movies made in Britain and the United States.
The Welsh-born actor's performance as Hannibal Lecter earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991.
Hopkins also earned Oscar nominations for his roles as an emotionally repressed butler in "The Remains of the Day" (1993), President John Quincy Adams in "Amistad" (1997) and the title role in "Nixon" (1995).
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