Anthony Hopkins’ Island of Solitude
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Anthony Hopkins is a mad doctor, STEVE! Martin in two parts, Lionsgate's roar, Rosemary’s Baby meets Network and a lifeline.
Let’s go!
ANTHONY HOPKINS' ISLAND OF SOLITUDE
Anthony Hopkins thrives in solitude.
In Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hopkins' charming serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, wishes to escape his prison. And that singular need is the only tactical advantage that Jodie Foster ever has over him.
Hopkins discussed that role:
“I do have an instinct about these roles. I could understand Lecter. I could understand the mystery of the man, the loner, the isolated voice in the dark, the man at the top of the stairs who's not really there.”
In Hopkins’ most recent Oscar-winning performance in The Father (2020) in the titular role, he also plays a man who’s not really there: a man who experiences temporal dislocation due to his dementia, skirting in and out of reality to heart-breaking effect.
Hopkins has just been cast as Dr. Moreau in Eyes In The Trees, based on the H. G. Wells science fiction classic The Island of Dr. Moreau.
The novel has been adapted into a film three times, most recently in 1996 when Marlon Brando played Dr. Moreau.
In the film Dr. Moreau has created an island where he breeds chimeras as a form of purifying the human race. While Brando leaned into the familial aspect of the mad scientist, e.g., “These [chimeras] are all my children,” Hopkins may bring a different dimension.
Perhaps he will play the role as a man trapped by the solitude of his own ambitions.
It's a place where we've seen him thrive before, and it will be delicious to see him take on this new character.
For More: