Trivia: At the end of the opening credits, just after "Screenplay by David Mamet" and before "directed by Ridley Scott", look at the right hand side of the screen - you can see Hannibal's face drawn by pigeons. (00:04:25)
Trivia: In the brain eating scene, the piece of brain Ray Liotta eats is actually a piece of cooked chicken.
Trivia: In the scene where the pickpocket is trying to get Hannibal's fingerprint on his bracelet, the cinema in the background has a poster for Gladiator - also directed by Ridley Scott.
Trivia: "The Silence of the Lambs" director Jonathan Demme was approached to direct and had expressed interest in directing a sequel for some time before the publication of the novel. However, he opted not to return, feeling the novel was too gory and excessive compared to "Silence..." and he didn't feel it would make a good film. Producer Dino de Laurentiis also suggested that Demme was also nervous to make a sequel, given the first film's reputation as potentially one of the greatest films ever made. "Silence of the Lambs" star Jodie Foster also refused to return, feeling the character of Clarice Starling was "betrayed" in the novel of "Hannibal."
Suggested correction: According to Jodie Foster, she didn't return due to a scheduling conflict with another film.
Foster herself has said that the "scheduling conflict" excuse was just the polite "official" reason she went with to not throw shade at the production, but wasn't the actual reason. A lot of times, "scheduling conflict" is used as a fall-back explanation when someone drops out of a project. Her intense disliking of the original novel and first few drafts of the script is very well-known, and why she turned it down.
Trivia: Not a mistake, but something I just noticed on about the 5th viewing. In the very creepy 'I've given very serious thought...to eating your wife' bit, during the ominous pause in the middle a fly crawls down the back/side of Anthony Hopkins' head, then flies around a bit. Can't be helped, and barely noticable, but it does wreck the mood a bit. (01:14:59)
Trivia: The part of Verger was originally offered to Christopher Reeves, however he declined, not wanting to play a paedophile.
