Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are capitalizing on the success of "The Da Vinci Code", the thriller novel by Dan Brown, with the movie "Angels & Demons". This was the reclusive author's third novel after he gave up his job as an English teacher.Based on the book "Angels and Demons", the movie follows notorious Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), who is called to a Swiss research facility (CERN) to analyze a mysterious symbol burned into the chest of a murdered physicist. Langdon finds evidence of the unthinkable - the revival of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the "Illuminati", the most powerful underground secret organization ever to exist.
Clues lead Langdon all over Rome and the Vatican, including the four alters of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, while an Assassin working for the Illuminati has kidnapped four Roman Catholic cardinals, and is murdering them one by one. At the same time, Langdon and Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer) are also searching for a new, and very destructive weapon that could kill millions of people and destroy Vatican City.
The movie is being filmed at a number of Roman locations found in the book, including the Pantheon, the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, and the Piazza Navona with its Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Castel Sant'Angelo and the centuries-old Biblioteca Angelica. However, Vatican officials made it clear from the beginning that there would be NO filming in or around the sacred city. The Vatican scenes were recreated on soundstages in Los Angeles to the last detail.
In fact, the official word from the Vatican is they abhor the very idea of the movie, and have called for a boycott upon its release. But then again, what would you expect their position to be?
In the movie, as in the book, a look inside the Vatican library reveals a book by Galileo that holds the clues to where the four cardinals will be murdered. These clues are hidden in what's called 'The Path of Illumination,' a complicated kind of map that leads to the secret meeting place of The Illuminati.
The film stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Ayelet Zurer as Vittoria Vetra, and Ewan McGregor as Carlo Ventresca, who in the book plays the carmelegro of the Vatican Church and is in a powerful position after the Pope dies. This helps Langdon, as Carlo is the voice of understanding and is the one whom pleads for the search of the anti-matter. But Carlo has a dark secret and a sad past, and might not be what you expect him to be.
"Angels & Demons" was the first big screen casualty of the Hollywood writer's strike in 2007, because Akiva Goldsman's script still needed work, and was on strike with the Writers Guild of America, causing production of the movie to be delayed.
We suspect "Angels & Demons" will be just as big as "The DaVinci Code" was, and we can't wait to see the final big-screen version. It will be a huge hit, and the award buzz will probably start the day it opens in theaters.
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