Hackman, Hyphenated

Gene Hackman and Orion Pictures have acquired Thomas Harris’ recent best seller “The Silence of the Lambs” as the basis for the actor’s screen-directing debut according to sources for the actor and the company. Hackman will also star and write an adaptation.

The Harris book centers on an FBI agent tracking an elusive serial killer responsible for a string of particularly grisly murders. The best clues come from a diabolical professor (to be played by Hackman) imprisoned in a hospital for the criminally insane for an earlier set of equally blood-chilling killings. The character figured in Harris’ earlier novel, “Red Dragon,” which was brought to the screen by Michael Mann as “Manhunter.”

Hackman, who starts Orion’s political thriller “The Package” next month, has begun a first draft screenplay, but expects to bring in another writer for revisions.

Orion hopes to shoot by late summer or early fall.