Free Republic

Producers are currently casting The Lecter Variation which follows the character - famous for tucking into some fava beans and a nice glass of Chianti - from the age of 12 to 25. They think the Home Alone star would be the perfect choice after seeing him play a drug-taking gay killer in his new film Party Monster. But if Macaulay takes the role he will have a job to fill Sir Anthony Hopkins' shoes. In 1991, Hopkins won an Academy award for his portrayal of the bloodthirsty cannibal Dr Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs.

AS IF Americans did not have enough to worry about, Hannibal Lecter returned to the nation’s movie theatres last night. Sir Anthony Hopkins’s screen cannibal made his long awaited reappearance in Red Dragon, a prequel to Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. The serial killer in the leather muzzle has come back to continue his reign of terror at a time when Americans are already immersed in a mood of suppressed anxiety. A shadow hangs over American life as the economy falters, the stock market continues its slide, pensions melt away and the tedium of living with the everyday inconveniences...