Michael Mann’s serial killer film Manhunter celebrates forty years of terror this year, and with it comes a special new edition of the film. The Heat filmmaker has partnered with Studiocanal to release a new 4K restoration of the Hannibal Lecter film this summer, coming to cinemas and home video in the US, UK, and Germany.
Starring William Peterson, Tom Noonan, Joan Allen, and Brian Cox as the iconic murderer, Manhunter was the first film to adapt any of Thomas Harris’s novels featuring Lecter, based on Red Dragon and preceding The Silence of the Lambs by five years. The film’s synopsis is as follows:
A retired criminal profiler reluctantly returns to the FBI to help track down a serial killer of families and is forced to consult an expert—the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The third feature written and directed by Michael Mann is a gripping adaptation of the first of Thomas Harris’s four novels featuring the iconic murderer, and benefits from the filmmaker’s typically striking visuals as well as a top-notch supporting cast.
Overseen by Mann himself, the new 4K scan of Manhunter comes from its original camera negative, with only a few shots taken from an interpositive. Digitally restored at Italy’s L’Immagine Ritrovata, new sound restoration was also done from an original 6-track master, as well as a new HDR presentation, with color grading overseen by Stefan Sonnenfeld.
“40 years ago – though armed with Thomas Harris’ excellent novel, “Red Dragon” – its subject matter, the profiling of serial killers, as well as being shocking and raw, was unknown,” says Mann. “When adapting, I wanted to make its storytelling deliver audiences into a certain state of threat and emotional engagement… We have carefully remastered the film to try to evoke that mood and intensity, heightened with audio sourced from the original 5.1 35mm analog masters. This latest iteration is that version of the film with which I’m most satisfied.”
The upgraded 4K restoration of Manhunter will premiere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on June 12, as the opener of its Summer of Thrills series. The film will also screen at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna on June 24.
Manhunter: The Final Cut hits US theaters on July 24 and UK cinemas on September 25, before arriving on home video formats at an unspecified date. Stay tuned to FANGORIA for more updates.
