Date: 15th February 2001

Hopkins Blasts Italian officials Over Hannibal


Anthony Hopkins has denounced Italian authorities who have threatened to remove scenes from Hannibal because of excessive violence.

Reports on Monday said that four Italian women fainted while seeing the film over the weekend and had to be taken to hospitals by ambulance. "It's hypocrisy. Censorship is tyranny," Hopkins told the German newspaper Bild while attending the Berlin Film Festival. "No one is being forced o see Hannibal. Censorship would ruin the film and destroy it."

Source: Studio Briefing