IT was a daunting prospect, but I think it sort of worked out," veteran British actor Sir Anthony Hopkins says about revisiting Hollywood's favourite psychopath, Hannibal Lecter, for a third time.

In Red Dragon, 63-year-old Sir Anthony has to step back over a decade in this prequel to his nightmarish depiction of the erudite serial killer in The Silence Of The Lambs.

He has already revisited the mad doctor in Ridley Scott's disappointing Hannibal, but Red Dragon really goes back to basics.

It's based on the first of Thomas Harris's series of books about Lecter, and required Sir Anthony to play a younger version of his sinister 1991 Oscar-winning creation.

This time Lecter is imprisoned in the same brick cell, but it's before Jody Foster's FBI agent Clarice Starling appears on the scene. Instead Edward Norton plays FBI agent Will Graham who first captured the mad cannibal genius and tries to use him to understand another twisted maniac Francis Dolarhyde (played by an intense Ralph Fiennes), nicknamed Tooth Fairy.

In fact, the title actually derives not from Lecter, but from Dolarhyde's fascination with the demonic spirit of a William Blake painting. It was made into the excellent film Manhunter as recently as 1986 with Brian Cox as Lecter, but that went largely unnoticed.

Sir Anthony admits he had his doubts about doing Lecter one more time. "I did think 'why milk a third one?'. Then I met with director Brett Ratner scriptwriter Ted Tally and they all seemed so serious about it. I didn't want to be a party pooper."

In truth Sir Anthony has been under a lot of pressure from veteran producer Dino De Laurentiis to keep doing Lecter, named the most popular movie villain in a recent internet poll.

"Tony, we can do many many more, like James Bond," Sir Anthony says, mimicking the blustery voice of De Laurentiis.

Tally wrote the script for The Silence Of The Lambs and Red Dragon and he marvels at how Hopkins has created such a screen icon. "People seem to love the bravura combination of this actor and this part," he says. "Anthony is charming and he's sexy and he's smart and you can't fake that kind of intelligence in a character."

Sir Anthony realises that Lecter rejuvenated his screen career a decade ago and given him a wonderful signature character.

But he says he doesn't know why this monster appeals to people so much.

I'm pleased the character connects, but it's only fictional. You'd have to ask a psychologist. I could come up with some quasi-Jungian stuff about it, like maybe he's an archetype in all of us. But I don't want to be fancy about it."

And the actor doubts he'll be back for any more liver and fava beans. "I'm Lectered out now. I've enjoyed it immensely and it did give a huge booth to my acting career, so I have no regrets. But I think three is enough."