We'd like to put this idea into the Bad Idea Jeans Vault: Producer Dino De Laurentiis is moving forward with a movie about Hannibal Lecter as a young man:
Currently being plotted by Lecter's creator Thomas Harris...The Lecter Variation, which is being subtitled The Story Of Young Hannibal Lecter, follows the serial killer from his childhood in Lithuania through a period in Paris in his teens to his arrival in the US. De Laurentiis said that four actors will be required to play young Lecter at the ages of 12, 16, 20 and 25.
"Lecter was born into a very rich family but the war destroyed his family and killed his parents," explained De Laurentiis from Los Angeles this week. "He was left with his sister with whom he had a very close relationship."
[Via Movie City News]
Gothamist would like to point out it was already a pretty funny Saturday Night Live sketch with Matt Damon - "Hannibal at Michigan State."