Character Central - set them apart from the crowd

Oh, that I would imagine a character that jumps off the pages! I've read many a book with superb, multi-layered characters, but its the ones breathed life into by film that stand out the most....Take Sir Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter in 'Silence of the Lambs'. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor with a screen time of only 16 minutes! His character is so memorable, and his portrayal so chilling that he dominates the story even though he features for so short a time.
Then there is Indiana Jones, and Lisbeth Salander; Ferris Bueller and Rocky...

Characters in books are not easy to get a depth to. And its this depth that draws the reader in. The character needs to stand out from the crowd, do things differently, make the reader feel an empathy or a fascination whether they like the character or not. The better the character stands out, the easier it is for the reader to construct the mind movie.

Three elements to a character that create depth:

Nighthawk Moth

1. Physical - what do they look like and wear; what do they do - their mannerisms & affectations, where do they live; what is their profession; what do they drive; are they married, single, with children or without; star signs; religion; and everything that makes up what you see on the surface.
2. Their emotions - what they feel about a specific topic, like politics; how they confront issues; have hey a quick or a slow temper, do they make friends easily; how do they feel about being married or single, or having kids or not; and everything about the way they react to their surroundings, or influences in their environment.  
3. Their issues - this is the deep stuff. This is where you can get into why they do what they do, or why they feel the way they feel. It could be as stereotyped as 'he had a bad childhood, so he became a ... recluse, murderer, the Barber of Seville.

The more you get into the head of your character, the more you'll find yourself saying 'he/she wouldn't do that, they would do this'. Essentially, you know them well enough to make that observation. That's the place you want to get to with your characters.

To get a handle on this, you can review scenes from movies. I've even paused and rewound so that I can write down a summary sentence for each scene across the length of a whole movie, just so I can see how all  the scenes weave together to make up the whole story, and more importantly, how the characters evolve over the various scenes.
As with Hannibal Lecter, they don't need to even feature in a scene to evolve through it...