Being a book nerd, most book-to-movie adaptations pique my attention because it’s always fascinating to see how the director chooses to do it. The latest and arguably one of the most highly anticipated book-movies is the prequel to The DaVinci Code: Angels and Demons
Now, many have ragged on the first Da Vinci Code movie–and I will admit, it wasn’t as good as the book (though, I have quite a few opinions about the book as well)–but the boatloads of money it assured the green light for Angels and Demons.
There’s no hint in the trailer that the movie is actually a prequel to the Da Vinci Code, so those poor souls wondering where Audrey Tautou (who played Sophie Neveu) went will be left hanging. Once again, Tom Hanks returns, and from the trailer, it looks like this movie will do what the movie before it did well: showing off the actual locations and the art.
The diverse sets and the fantastic locations Ron Howard obtained for this set of movies allows people to get surprisingly close to art and locations that would otherwise be foreign to laypeople. That’s not to say some sets aren’t fabricated or CG, but The Da Vinci Code was given unprecedented access to landmark locations, and it looks as though Angels and Demons got similar treatment.
Say what you will about the books and the movie, if you put together Dan Brown’s books, Tom Hanks, a (different) pretty brunette sidekick, shadowy religious conspiracies, fantastic Roman architecture and classical art sprinkled with a healthy dose of pyrotechnics, it all spells another blockbuster.
The most interesting thing of all, though, is that Ron Howard announced Dan Brown had completed his third manuscript, The Solomon Key. Turns out that was news to Random House, the publisher, who quickly denied the existence of the manuscript. That goes to show that this may have been Ron Howard’s push at Brown to get him to finish the manuscript so he would have the material for his third movie. Perhaps if Dan Brown, JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer could all just publish a fresh new book this year, not only would all of the big publishing companies be saved, but so would the big movie studios as well!
Angels and Demons releases on May 15th, 2009.
Who knows when The Solomon Key will release.
Visit the official Angels and Demons website.
