Angels and Demons Banned By The Vatican

Everybody loves Tom Hanks, right?

The everyman actor has a box office golden touch stretching back almost 20 years, and with The Da Vinci Code Hanks made his first film with sequel potential. Okay, I know that we could have seen Turner and Hooch 2 by now, but we won’t get into that!

Hanks returns as Robert Langdon in Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, but one guy who isn’t happy is The Pope.

Sure, he had to have been pretty miffed over the contents of The Da Vinci Code movie (and book) but he isn’t willing to turn the other cheek. His Holiness has now banned the production from filming on the grounds of The Vatican or in any church in Rome.

Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs said:

“It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business.”

I’m sure that De Paolis could also have said that he has possibly the longest title that anyone, in any job could ever have. However to my knowledge he didn’t. Although, he might have. At some point.

The new film follows a secret organization called The Illuminati who plan to elect their own member as pope and blow up The Vatican.

The Catholic Church wasn’t so hot on The Da Vinci Code, so it’s no surprise that this has happened. Howard and company now plan to build the church interiors on sound stages in the blasphemous depths of Hollywood. A place where sin runs deep.

Meanwhile it is good to note that Hanks has shed that terrible hair from the previous Brown adaptation, and he now looks pretty respectable.

Angels and Demons opens on May 19, 2009

Source: The Times