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Sir Anthony Hopkins has played some iconic film roles. His most famous and enduring role may be that of Hannibal Lecter, a respected forensic psychiatrist turned serial killer with a strange taste for eating his victims, in The Silence of the Lambs.
Now, the 84-year-old Welsh actor is launching an NFT collection based on his film roles. Variety reports the star is behind the upcoming "Eternal Collection," based on his roles and art creations.
Anthony Hopkins becomes "Eternal"
Hopkins, a multiple Oscar-winning actor, director, and producer, is partnering with Web3 startup Orange Comet to launch his NFT series. The collection aims to “conceptualize” — or immortalize — 10 different character archetypes the actor has portrayed over his 62-year career as an actor. Among those archetypes are Lecter and Odin from Marvel’s Thor movies.
The NFTs will hit OpenSea in September 2022. Some of the proceeds will be donated to charity in Hopkins’ and his wife Stella Arroyave’s names. Eternal Collection will launch in three phases.
Phase one will consist of a single animated NFT called Iconic Category and feature all 10 archetypes: The Giver, The Hero, The Jester, The Ruler, The Lover, The Explorer, The Creator, The Sage, The Rebel, and The Magician. Hopkins will autograph the NFT for the winning bidder, who will received framed prints of the NFT, an “intimate lunch/brunch” with Hopkins, and an autographed copy of hundreds of full-color images and paintings created by the actor.
The Legendary Category will introduce 10 unique animated one-of-one NFTs featuring a different character archetype each. Hopkins will engage in a personal discussion with those 10 buyers via Discord along with framed and autographed prints of Hopkins’ NFT art and an autographed book of Hopkins’ images and paintings, called Dreamscapes.
The final phase of launch will include 1,000 unique one-of-one images based on the 10 archetypes. Each archetype will feature 100 variants of each archetype. This phase will also include an autographed print of one NFT archetype. Additionally, 39 random buyers will receive an autographed copy of the Dreamscapes book while five random buyers will be selected to join Hopkins in a Discord chat.
The inspiration behind Hopkins’ Eternal Collection
Hopkins took an interest in NFTs earlier this year after Zero Contact, a film in which he plays a wealthy technology maven, was released exclusively as an NFT. Hopkins calls NFTs a “blank canvas” for creating art in a new format. In reference to the non-fungible tokens he has come to appreciate, he calls himself “the old guy on the block” and says it’s fun play that role because he is “fascinated by young people.”
Each animated NFT in the Eternal Collection will be approximately 30-45 seconds in length.
If you’re wondering which archetype represents Hannibal Lecter, that would The Rebel. In June, he reached out to other celebrities on Twitter for advice on where to start in exploring NFTs for creativity. Among the celebrities he tagged were Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Fallon, and Reese Witherspoon. He received responses from several different celebrities, including artist Beeple.
Hopkins has encouraging words for his fans. He says to not let age be a limiting factor. There’s nothing to win or lose in trying. He also said he most closely identifies with The Rebel archetype because he’s always been an “outsider.”
