A movie sequel would seem to be a slam dunk. After all, "The Silence of the Lambs" won the best picture Academy Award in 1991; just about everyone involved in the film -- stars Foster and Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Ted Tally -- took home an Oscar as well. Not to mention the fact that the film made three times its cost. Put that amazing team of talent back together and voilą -- another box office blockbuster, and more Golden Boys to sit on everyone's mantle.

But that doesn't take into account the bad behavior that rears its ugly head in Hollywood whenever the words "major money" are uttered. Mix in the apocalyptic ingredients of greed, ego and a book plot so horrific that it's hard to imagine anyone sitting through it ever, and everything starts going to hell in a film canister. The result? The very real possibility that "Hannibal" the movie won't bear much resemblance to the original. Informed sources say Universal, which controls the property, is seriously considering passing on the project.

The news is stunning. Yet Universal has its reasons.

Several reasons, in fact, many of them caused by the incessant wheeling and dealing of that catastrophic catalyst Dino De Laurentiis, a man canny enough to send his personal pasta chef to Miami to cook for Harris, presumably so the writer would finish "Hannibal" faster. He's also a mogul more interested in making a mint off "Silence II" than in making a mint movie. A Byzantine series of back-room maneuvers dating back years means that De Laurentiis retains the rights to the character Hannibal Lecter, the murderous cannibal played in the film by Anthony Hopkins. (Harris first created the character in the novel "Red Dragon," which was turned into the De Laurentiis-produced, Michael Mann-directed motion picture "Manhunter." A tortuous history of the rights to the "Silence of the Lambs" sequel, drafted this winter by Century City law firm Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, took 10 pages to sum up. Even so, the confidential document was incomprehensible even to those people involved from the very beginning.)

Meanwhile, Universal leveraged first negotiation and last refusal rights from De Laurentiis for any "Silence of the Lambs" sequel written by Harris. That didn't stop both sides from going to court on the matter until a settlement was reached. Then, last month, a $10 million payment put De Laurentiis first in line for the "Hannibal" film rights. Now it's Universal's turn to say yea or nay.

But if anyone can ruin a hot property before the screenwriter is even hired, it's De Laurentiis. Do "Ragtime," "Flash Gordon" or the 1976 version of "King Kong" ring a bell?

Hollywood dealmakers say negotiating with De Laurentiis ranks right up there with having a root canal. According to sources, his refusal to give Demme creative control over the sequel demoralized the director to the point where he left the project. Incredibly, De Laurentiis has also been lobbying for weeks to drop Foster from the project; the producer, who insists on calling the double Oscar-winner "Judy" in his conversations, kvetches that the sequel can't afford both her and Hopkins, particularly if they both want their expected $20 million paydays.

Harris delivered his manuscript March 23. Since then, De Laurentiis has been on the phone daily with agents, monitoring the progress of the book-into-film project from, of all places, the Mediterranean island of Malta, where he has been on location producing the World War II submarine drama "U-571." Now, the wily and whiny Italian has arrived at his home in Los Angeles to begin negotiating with Universal Pictures.

"Dino isn't stupid. He's heard that he's on shaky ground with Universal," one source maintained. In a gambit to save the project, De Laurentiis is trying to convince director Ridley Scott to come on board. Scott, oddly enough, had been filming his own movie on Malta as well; that's where De Laurentiis handed him a copy of Harris' 10-years-in-the-making novel. But this plan is still in its "embryonic" stages, one source contends. "It's just an idea right now. It hasn't even given birth to a baby deal."

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