I admit he hasn't exactly gotten to play in a lot of good movies. He hasn't played a career-making movie yet. Only good movie I can think of is Saving Private Ryan - short role as Sgt. Caparzo. Fast & The Furious is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.. XXX was entertaining though, just average mindless action. Riddick was so so. But he could have hitherto untapped potentials we haven't seen yet.
About his passion for Hannibal, in an interview he stated having ambitions of using contemporaneous languages (Latin, Punic etc).. he wanted to portray Hannibal's mastery of 8 languages. So I think he's passionate.
But I don't know how well that passion of his will go. Publishers will decide in the end. But Mel Gibson set a new standard with Passion of Christ, even if the Latin pronunciations were off by half a century.
Bookmarks