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Angels and Demons
Director: Ron Howard
Release Date: May 15, 2009
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierfrancesco Favino
Language: English
Country: United States
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Angels & Demons is an film adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel of the same name, due for release on May 15, 2009. It is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code (2006), another Brown film adaptation, although the novel Angels & Demons takes place before the novel The Da Vinci Code. Filming took place in Rome and the Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. Tom Hanks reprises the lead role of Robert Langdon, while director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also returned.
Angels and Demons re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code. Although the book Angels and Demons was written before the novel The Da Vinci Code, the movie transpires after the events of the earlier movie.
Hanks stars as professor Robert Langdon, the most respected symbologist in the United States, who uses his knowledge in order to decode a symbol on the skin of a murder victim. The clues put him on the trail of an international conspiracy involving the Catholic Church. Ewan McGregor and Ayelet Zurer also star in the Sony Pictures production.
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is summoned by Vatican City to investigate a murder victim, branded with the Illuminati ambigram, leading him to discover the secret society’s scheme to murder four cardinals and destroy St. Peter’s Basilica during a papal conclave using antimatter.
Cast:
- Tom Hanks plays Professor Robert Langdon, a Harvard University professor of symbology.
- Ayelet Zurer plays Vittoria Vetra, a CERN scientist whose antimatter experiment has been stolen by the Illuminati to be used as a bomb. Ewan McGregor plays the Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Carlo Ventresca in the novel).
- Stellan Skarsgård plays Commander Richter, head of the Swiss Guard.
- Pierfrancesco Favino plays Inspector Ernesto Olivetti.
- Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Mr. Gray, an assassin.
- Armin Mueller-Stahl as Cardinal Strauss.
In 2003, Sony acquired the film rights to Angels & Demons (2000) along with The Da Vinci Code (2003) in a deal with author Dan Brown. In May 2006, following the film release of the 2006 film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, Sony hired screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, to adapt Angels & Demons.
Director Ron Howard chose to treat Angels & Demons as a sequel to the previous film, rather than a prequel. He was also more comfortable taking liberties in adapting the story because the novel is less popular than The Da Vinci Code. Producer Brian Grazer said they were too “reverential” when adapting The Da Vinci Code, which resulted in it being “a little long and stagey”. This time, “Langdon doesn’t stop and give a speech. When he speaks, he’s in motion.” Howard concurred “it’s very much about modernity clashing with antiquity and technology vs. faith, so these themes, these ideas are much more active whereas the other one lived so much in the past. The tones are just innately so different between the two stories.” David Koepp rewrote the script before shooting began.
Filming was originally to begin in February 2008 for a December 2008 release, but because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, production was pushed back for a May 15, 2009 release. Shooting began on June 4, 2008 in Rome under the fake working title “Obelisk”. The filmmakers scheduled three weeks of exterior location filming because of a predicted 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike on June 30. The rest of the film would be shot at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles, California, to allow for this halt.
Additionally, Roman Catholic Church officials found The Da Vinci Code offensive, so the filmmakers were unable to shoot inside the churches Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. The Caserta Palace doubled for the inside of the Vatican, and the Biblioteca Angelica was used for the Vatican Library. A full scale replica was also built at Sony.
CBS News interviewed a priest working in Santa Susanna, who stated the Church did not also want their churches to be associated with scenes of murder. A tour guide also stated most priests do not object to tourists who visit out of interest after reading the book, a trend which will continue after people see the film. “I think they are aware that it’s, you know, a work of fiction and that it’s bringing people into their churches.” Grazer deemed it odd that although The Da Vinci Code was a more controversial novel, they had more freedom shooting its film adaptation in London and France. Italian authorities hoped the filmmakers corrected the location errors in the novel, to limit the amount of explaining they will have to do for confused tourists.
The second unit took photographs of the Large Hadron Collider for visual effects shots of the facility. The Moving Picture Company would combine these into footage of actors shot against bluescreen in Los Angeles. Ron Howard also met with CERN to make the film more scientifically accurate. Filming also took place at the University of California, Los Angeles in July 2008.
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