For NBC, Hannibal Lecter Is a Name to Reckon With : Television: Network retitles 1986 film to capitalize on ‘Silence of the Lambs.’ It’s a ‘very positive way’ to market it, an executive says.

If “Red Dragon: The Curse of Hannibal Lecter,” airing tonight at 9 on NBC, looks like the 1986 theatrical film “Manhunter,” it’s because the two action thrillers are one and the same. The network has changed the title in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the current feature film “The Silence of the Lambs,” starring Anthony Hopkins as the carnivorous Lecter.

“Manhunter,” directed by “Miami Vice” producer Michael Mann, is based on the 1981 Thomas Harris novel “Red Dragon,” precursor to Harris’ 1988 “Lambs” novel.

“I view (“Manhunter’s” new title) as a very positive way of marketing,” said Paul Wang, vice president of program and media planning at NBC. “We knew of a movie that was so closely tied to a theatrical success that we thought it would be opportunistic to run this and package it appropriately. It would be foolhardy for us to go out and get this property and not make some connection there.”

NBC aired the film--as “Manhunter”--in 1989, and it earned respectable ratings, but Wang hopes the “Silence of the Lambs” tie-in will bring in even bigger numbers tonight opposite the conclusion of “Dallas” on CBS.

The practice of retitling theatrical films on TV is not new. Among the movies that NBC has done it with are the 1987 box-office flop “Square Dance,” which aired as “Home Is Where the Heart Is;” 1980’s critical flop “When Time Ran Out,” rechristened “Earth’s Final Fury,” and 1971’s “Sometimes a Great Notion,” retitled “Never Give an Inch.”

Last month, NBC repackaged the 1988 Justine Bateman film “Satisfaction,” calling it “Girls of Summer” and giving top billing to supporting player Julia Roberts.

In each case, Wang said, the film’s producers were contacted--”sometimes out of (legal) necessity and sometimes out of courtesy.” In the case of “Manhunter,” he said, “we are doing it in concert with Michael Mann.”

Repackaging, Wang said, “is not really a policy as much as a coincidence. Our job is to try to reach more people with our programs. If you put a nice package on it, more people will watch it--and, we hope, like it.”

But while NBC indicates in press material that the movies have been retitled, often this information is not passed along to viewers, who may think the films are new.

“You’re trying to refashion (a film) so that it will attract people,” said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. “Like a used car that only has 20 miles on it, these films only have 20 miles on them. If (the movie) was barely in the theaters, if it didn’t play long enough for anybody to even know what it is, I don’t count that to be a sin.”