''Clarice'' is a 2021 American horror

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

television series created by

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers'' (2007), '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)'', ''Star Trek'' (2009), ''Star Trek Into Darkness ...

and

Jenny Lumet Jenny Lumet (born February 2, 1967) is an American actress and screenwriter. She is the daughter of director Sidney Lumet and granddaughter of Lena Horne. Lumet wrote the original screenplay of the 2008 Jonathan Demme film '' Rachel Getting Marr ...

and produced by

CBS Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount (Network) Television, as a re ...

MGM Television Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, formerly known as MGM/UA Television, is the television studio arm of the American film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), specializing in broadcast syndication and the production and distribution of television sh ...

, and

Secret Hideout Secret Hideout is a film and television production company founded in 2014 by Alex Kurtzman. It is notable for the recent incarnations of the ''Star Trek'' franchise with Roddenberry Entertainment. History In 2014, Alex Kurtzman and Robert ...

. It is based on the best-selling 1988 novel '' The Silence of the Lambs'' by

Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940) is an American writer. He is the author of a series of suspense novels about Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, including '' The Silence o ...

and set between the events of the 1991 film and ''

Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...

'' (2001). The series stars

Rebecca Breeds Rebecca Elizabeth Breeds (born 17 June 1987) is an Australian actress. She is best known for her leading roles as Ruby Buckton on the Seven Network soap opera ''Home and Away'' (2008–2012) and Clarice Starling on the CBS crime drama series ...

as the titular character, along with Lucca De Oliveira, Devyn A. Tyler,

Kal Penn Kalpen Suresh Modi ( born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. As an actor he is known for his portrayals of Kumar Patel in t ...

, Nick Sandow,

Michael Cudlitz Michael Cudlitz (born December 29, 1964) is an American actor known for portraying John Cooper in the NBC/ TNT drama series '' Southland'' for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2 ...

, and Marnee Carpenter. The series premiered on February 11, 2021, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. In May 2021, CBS entered negotiations to relocate the series to

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

for its second season. By June, the relocation became "unlikely" to happen.

Cast

Main

Clarice Starling Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character and protagonist of the novels '' The Silence of the Lambs'' (1988) and ''Hannibal'' (1999) by Thomas Harris. In the 1991 film adaptation of ''The Silence of the Lambs'', she was played by Jodie Foster ...

as Paul Krendler * Lucca De Oliveira as Tomas Esquivel *

as Shaan Tripathi * Nick Sandow as Murray Clarke * Devyn A. Tyler as Ardelia Mapp * Marnee Carpenter as Catherine Martin

Recurring

* Shawn Doyle as Clarice's original therapist *

Jayne Atkinson Jayne Atkinson (born 18 February 1959) is a British-American actress. She is best known for the role of Karen Hayes on '' 24'', as well as her Tony Award–nominated roles in '' The Rainmaker'' and '' Enchanted April''. She has also appeared in ...

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

Ruth Martin * K. C. Collins as Agent Garrett * Tim Guinee as Novak * Peter McRobbie as Nils Hagen * Douglas Smith as Tyson Conway * Simon Northwood as Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb * Elizabeth Saunders as Bea Love

Episodes

Production

Development

In January 2020,

hired

and

to create a sequel series to the 1991 film '' The Silence of the Lambs''. The series was among the 14 pilot episodes ordered by CBS in February and was fast-tracked to series the following March, as CBS was shut down and unable to film pilot episodes because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. CBS picked up the series on May 8 and announced in December a premiere of February 11, 2021, alongside a trailer release. Due to complicated rights issues of franchise characters between

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

and the

Dino de Laurentiis Company Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian Film producer, film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, h ...

, the series cannot feature or make reference to

Hannibal Lecter Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a character created by American novelist Thomas Harris. Lecter is a cannibalistic serial killer and former forensic psychiatrist; after his incarceration, he is consulted by FBI agents Will Graham and Clarice Starling ...

. Kurtzman explained, "I'm still trying to understand how the rights are divided. But it's been quite liberating because we have no interest in writing about Hannibal—not because we didn't love the films and the show, but because it was done so well by so many people that it didn't feel fresh for us." In May 2021, CBS entered negotiations to relocate the series to

for its second season. By June, the relocation became "unlikely" to happen. Negotiations between ViacomCBS and co-producer MGM "stalemated", and since CBS had already committed to a full slate of shows, there was no space for ''Clarice'' to continue on network television. Industry veterans described the state of affairs as "crazy", where a show already with a new season pickup is facing demise and the prospect of putting 300 people out of work, even though it involves a recognizable intellectual property and Kurzman, a top producer. the show has not been officially canceled.

Casting

was cast as

in February 2020. Lucca De Oliveira and Devyn A. Tyler were cast in starring roles.

, Nick Sandow, and

joined the main cast. Marnee Carpenter was cast as a series regular while

, Shawn Doyle, and Tim Guinee were cast in recurring roles. Douglas Smith joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

for the series began on September 21, 2020, in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. Filming of the first season concluded on March 23, 2021.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the series has an approval rating of 37% based on reviews from 43 critics, with an average rating of 6.11/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Effectively grim, but narratively bland, ''Clarice'' is a disturbingly safe procedural that lets down both its talented cast and source material."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave the series a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 32 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{Alex Kurtzman 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s American horror television series 2020s American mystery television series 2020s American police procedural television series 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings American sequel television series American prequel television series American television spinoffs Fiction about cannibalism American English-language television shows Fiction about familicide Hannibal Lecter mass media Psychological horror Serial drama television series Interquel television series Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series about fictional serial killers Television series about the Federal Bureau of Investigation Television series by CBS Studios Television series by MGM Television Television series created by Alex Kurtzman Television shows filmed in Toronto Television series set in 1993 Television shows about diseases and disorders Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in Washington, D.C. Works about psychoanalysis CBS crime dramas