Laurence Fishburne Joins NBC’s HANNIBAL

Realizing he didn’t nab enough fictional killers during his recent stint on the hit series CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, Laurence Fishburne has joined the cast of NBC’s HANNIBAL. The PEE-WEE’S PLAYHOUSE alum has been cast as FBI special agent Jack Crawford, boss of Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), the criminal profiler who’s hunting down serial killers with the assistance of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).

So much for my initial thought this series was going to be canon and serve as the bridge between HANNIBAL RISING and RED DRAGON. It is one thing to believe Harvey Keitel (who played Crawford in DRAGON) could portray the younger version of Scott Glenn (who played Crawford in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) but it’s a whole other thing, a deeply implausible one, to believe Fishburne could play the younger version of Keitel.

Expect this series to do its own thing …and suck. Not joking. A network series about the early years of Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter is an awful idea. One that’ll probably last five or six episodes tops and end up being nothing more than an extra stain on a still great film.

[via TV Guide]