Screen Rant » angels and demons

Summer 2009: The Season Of Bad Movies [Updated]

Heath McKnight — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:38:14 +0000

Well, the summer movie season is officially over, and while box office earnings are way up, it seems like the quality of the films have actually gone way down. But for every few badly-written movies (like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2, and G.I. Joe–though some will say it’s not that bad), there was a diamond in the rough like District 9. So why were so many movies so bad in the summer of ‘09, even if they did make a lot of money? Hint: The Writers Strike!

Before the summer began, I wrote an article about how the 2007 Writers Strike might affect the summer 2009 movies. I speculated that back in 2007, studios were nervous about how long the writers strike could last, leaving them with a possible lack of films for the fall/winter 2008 and all-important summer 2009 season (early May to late August 2009). To make sure they had big films lined up for Summer ‘09, the studios pushed to have their big-budget scripts quick-finished before the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) contracts were up in November 2007 and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in summer of 2008.

So what happened? Movies like Wolverine, Transformers 2, GI Joe, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, and others got thrashed by critics (and our own, brave reviewers here at Screen Rant), for their lackluster scripts that showed every sign of being half-cooked. Now, some of you might thing bad scripts and summer blockbusters go hand-in-hand – but let’s be honest, when was the last time there were so many stinkers that came out in one summer? Sure, many of these films made a lot of money, but how much of that profit hinges on moviegoers looking for affordable entertainment and “stay-cations” in this bad economy?

It’s very well known that most of the summer ‘09 films were rushed into production. Angels and Demons was delayed a year due to the Strike, but that didn’t seem to help make the final product that much better; Michael Bay has said in interviews that he worked out the overall story of Transformers 2, all the way down to the action AND comedic bits. However, when the WGA strike ended, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were joined by fellow writer Ehren Krueger to try and get the script for TF2 hammered out in a matter of three or four months to meet the production start deadline. At that rushed pace, the script was bound to suffer.

Several Big-budget franchise installments failed to live up to the hype.

Here’s a quick recap of some of the more disappointing movies this summer:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Terminator: Salvation
Angels and Demons
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Year One
Public Enemies (this one is open to debate–it seems kind of split on how people and critics liked it–Vic liked it)

(Continue to pg. 2 to see which movies of Summer ‘09 were actually good!)

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 17, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:49:46 +0000

This week:

Tom Hanks is the box office champion; Terry Gilliam kills Don Quixote…again; Spider-Man has a new Green Goblin (on stage); the Basterds are online; Toy Story 3 is moving Up; Ewan McGregor won’t be Trainspotting and who are the Six Suspects?

Box Office

Tom Hanks charged to the top of the box office with Angels and Demons. The sequel to The DaVinci Code grossed $48 million over the weekend, which is down from the $77 million opening for the first film. Having said that, reviews are better and the audience is more mature so it might have legs to make it profitable. Expect a third movie – but might they replace Hanks with someone younger and cheaper next time?

Star Trek showed great legs with a second weekend take of $42 million and a drop of less than 45% from its opening weekend. With a total gross of $147 million it looks like this installment of the long running science fiction franchise really does have phasers set for stun!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine clawed in another $15 million for a grand total of $151 million.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past pulled in another $4 million for a total of $40 million. Expect it to hit the $50 million mark.

Obsessed has now banked $62 million so expect to see Beyonce Knowles in more romantic comedies. 17 Again is also teetering around the $60 million mark while Monster Vs Aliens is closing in on $200 million.

Movie News

1. It looks like Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is looking like it’s going to finally hit the big screen. Although having said that I wouldn’t get too excited until I’ve bought my ticket.

Gilliam and Tony Grisoni (a very nice man) have rewritten the script where a filmmaker ends up in Don Quixote’s world.

Gilliam said:

“I’m not so much a filmmaker as someone who gets possessed by an idea and it doesn’t leave me until I make the film. I commit myself to it so fully.”

Johnny Depp was set to star in the original incarnation of the film and Gilliam is in talks with the star to return to the project, but Depp’s a busy man these days and he might not be able to fit it into his schedule.

Time will tell.

Source: Variety

2. X-Men 2 star Allan Cumming is in negotiations to star in Julie Taymor’s $40 million Broadway musical production of Spider-Man.

Cumming would play the Green Goblin in the play which will have music by U2.

Anybody else think that this is a crazy idea?

Source: New York Post

3. The official website to Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has been launched. Excited? Don’t be – there’s just a trailer there and some facebook and twitter links.

Expect more as we get closer to the August 21st release date.

Source: Inglourious Basterds

4. If you’ve been waiting 10 years for Toy Story 3 then wait no more. Well…you’ve got to wait a bit more. The trailer for the long awaited animated film will be attached to Pixar’s forthcoming UP.

Toy Story 3 will open on June 18th, 2010.

Source: Movieblog

5. With Slumdog Millionaire raking in Oscars and grossing millions it’s no surprise to learn that the author of the book on which the film was based – Vikas Swarup has become a hot commodity. The author’s next novel Six Suspects is being developed by BBC Films. The book which is billed as “Agatha Christie meets Elmore Leonard” is being adapted by John Hodge, who also wrote Slumdog director Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.

The film is due to shoot in Delhi next year.

Source: Screen Daily

6. Speaking of Trainspotting – it looks like Ewan McGregor won’t be slipping back into Renton’s tight jeans in a Trainspotting sequel.

Speaking to Moviefone McGregor said:

“I don’t think I would, for several reasons. The first one is that I didn’t think the book was very good. The novel of ‘Trainspotting’ was quite fantastic, it was beautiful, quite moving and disturbing writing, and then I find that the sequel … the book that Irvine Welsh wrote was called ‘Porno,’ and … it didn’t move me as much … He’d written a good sequel to the film as opposed to a sequel to his book. It’s also a similar story, you know, the betrayal of trust … Renton walks away with all the money at the end again. And I thought I don’t want to make the same story again. And, also, I think just the idea of getting the cast together again 10 to 15 years later isn’t good enough, you need more than that.”

Fair point – I think the fact that Boyle and McGregor had a huge falling out over Leonardo DiCapario being cast in The Beach might have something to do with it.

You might be angry Ewan – but he did do you a favor on that one.

Source: Moviefone

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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Angels & Demons Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:01:06 +0000

Short version: Angels & Demons is better than The Da Vinci Code and if you’re a fan of the books you’ll probably enjoy it – otherwise… I suppose there are worse ways to kill a couple of hours.

Screen Rant reviews Angels and Demons

I was not a fan of The Da Vinci Code.

Just thought I should get that out there right of the bat. I found that film incredibly boring and dull, and Tom Hanks just didn’t work for me in the role.

Having said that, Angels & Demons is an improvement over the previous film.

While I undersand that Angels & Demons was written prior to The Da Vinci Code, in the film it is treated as a sequel instead of a prequel. The events of the previous film are alluded to here in order to make that very clear.

This time there is some high tech involved in the guise of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. You know, that massive atom smasher they built in Europe that people thought would create a black hole and swallow up the Earth? So something almost as whacky happens there: Physicist Vittoria Vetra (played by Ayelet Zurer) uses the collider to create a significant quantity of… antimatter.

Yes, you read that right – and no you haven’t stumbled upon our Star Trek review.

Anyway, a priest/physicist (I really thought being a priest was kind of a full time job) observing the experiment is killed and a vial of antimatter is stolen. It was taken by the “Illuminati.” Once again that ancient enemy of the Catholic church surfaces in this film to cause problems for the Vatican.

On the heels of the death of the Pope and despite their feelings toward him, the Vatican calls upon symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to help them track down the location of the antimatter before Vatican City is destroyed. He teams up with Vetra to follow clues that lead them all over Rome with only a few hours before mass destruction.

To say the story is implausible would be an understatement, but if you just go along for the ride and don’t try to think too hard I suppose it’s entertaining enough. The opening scene at CERN was pretty cool but the movie soon bogs down once it gets going. There are some characters I liked – Ewan Macgregor as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, the Pope’s assistant, and Pierfrancesco Favino as Inspector Olivetti. As to Tom Hanks – he does a good enough job but to me this role still doesn’t seem to fit him.

While the film feels pretty bogged down through the middle, towards the end it starts to pick up and actually gets a bit exciting. However some of the ridiculous plot points take some serious suspension of disbelief (that, or just ignore them) if you are to enjoy this film at all.

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Did The Writers Strike Hurt This Summer’s Movies?

Heath McKnight — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:13:57 +0000

We all remember the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that lasted 100 days (from late 2007 to early 2008) and cost Hollywood a couple of billion dollars in lost wages and revenue. Sure, plenty of movies went into production anyway so there would be at least some new movies, but without writers to do onset re-writes has the quality suffered?

For example, the recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace; writer Paul Haggis turned in the script right before the WGA strike began in November 2007, and the film started shooting soon after. Production was well underway by the time the strike ended, so it is possible they had some rewrites done, especially if there were any major reshoots.

The movie opened November 2008, and while our own Niall Browne gave it 4 out of 5 stars, Screen Rant’s owner and Editor-in-Chief Vic Holtreman had this to say:

“Too much action at the expense of story/character development. I thought they turned Bond into nothing but a revenge-crazed murderer. He was closer to The Punisher than 007.”

Of course, Vic also felt the directing of the action sequences wasn’t good at all: too many close-ups, fast-cutting and jerky camera work, something that was big for a while in films including Batman Begins, the first Transformers, and the latter Jason Bourne films. But the previous Bond film (Casino Royale) really blended great writing with terrific stunts and action set pieces.

Let’s move onto movies coming out this year. Terminator Salvation went into production as the WGA strike was ending, but that didn’t give the crew much time to do any major work on the screenplay before cameras rolled. I’m guessing that onset rewrites happened. We’ll see how the overall quality of the latest Terminator film is when it opens May 21, 2009.

And what about X-Men Origins: Wolverine? It may have shredded the box office with an $87 million opening weekend and Vic gave it 3 out of 5 stars, but the critics have ravaged it and fan word-of-mouth isn’t doing so great. I expect a major drop this coming weekend and that’s only partly because Star Trek is coming out. Could the quality of Wolverine suffered because of the WGA strike? I’d say yes, but we may never know because of the involvement of the studio, director, etc. And there were some expensive rewrites and reshoots done earlier this year.

Speaking of Star Trek, I believe its release date was bumped from December 2008 to May 2009 partly of the WGA strike. JJ Abrams and his writers couldn’t even touch the script when shooting began at the height of the strike, and I wonder if they delayed the film to do rewrites and reshoots?

Angels and Demons had to delay the start of production for months because the script just wasn’t up to par when the strike happened. I also think Thor and Ant-Man were delayed a year or two because of the strike, though it looks like an Ant-Man movie may not happen until after The Avengers.

Michael Bay worked on his own ideas for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen while the WGA strike happened. Most of it was probably visual effects set pieces, but once the strike ended, his three writers (Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ehren Krueger) were holed up in a hotel to pound out the script in a short time to get the film ready for production.

We won’t know about the quality of some of these and other films until they open, but I do believe we’ll see some movies that went into production without the much-needed onset rewrites, or even a script that was ready to go before cameras.

What do you think? Have movies that have opened, or are coming out, suffered because of the WGA strike?

Source: Screen Rant

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Wolverine Shreds Box Office: $87 Million Opening Weekend

Heath McKnight — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:35:26 +0000

They call him Wolverine, and he’s the best at what he does, and what he does is shred the box office with berserker rage! Okay, enough of the Wolverine analogies, but you can’t help but be impressed with the $87 million haul of X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

What a way to start off the summer–with the 2009 box office up over last year, people are still hungry for movies, even in this economy. Fox need not fret any more about the pirated version that leaked out, hurting the box office, because the Hugh Jackman-starrer proved that people love to see movies in the theaters.

But the one thing Wolverine’s healing factor and near-indestructible adamantium-laced skeleton can’t stop, and that’s the critical drubbing it’s receiving. It stands at an awful 37% rating over at RottenTomatoes.com, though Screen Rant’s owner and Editor-in-Chief Vic Holtreman gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I’ve been reading online that it’s also getting fair-to-poor word-of-mouth ratings from viewers, and that has the potential to hurt the film in the coming weeks.

I’d say a Wolverine 2 is now extremely likely to get green lit (how about Bryan Singer directing?!), and other X-Men movies could see the green light, too, like X-men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Magneto and spinoffs for Deadpool and Gambit.

Add to that another May that’s over-stocked with movies, so something’s going to give and a movie will crash and burn. Iron Man, which opened the same weekend last year, was able to stay invincible because it was a well-received film by fans and critics, while Speed Racer and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian were both weak films that crashed and burned.

With Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, and Disney/Pixar’s Up all coming out in the coming weeks, can Wolverine stay the positive box office course? We’ll have to keep our eyes on it. For now, X-Men Origins: Wolverine has started the summer off with a rip-roaring howl!

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Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon Will Return In ‘The Lost Symbol’

Niall Browne — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:27:37 +0000

Angels and Demons hasn’t even been released yet, but Columbia Pictures is already planning a third adventure for Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon.

Dan Brown’s third Langdon adventure, The Lost Symbol is set to go into production soon – even though the book hasn’t been published yet and the plot is unknown (the Freemasons are expected to be involved).

Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Brown’s Publisher), said:

“This is a great day for readers and booksellers.

It is not a bad day for Columbia Pictures either, which has another continuing global franchise to go along with Spider-Man.”

The Lost Symbol will be released on September 15, 2009. The novel will have a first printing run of 5 million copies- the largest in the publisher’s history.

Both Hanks and director/producer Ron Howard aren’t contracted to do another movie, but if Angels and Demons makes the type of money that Columbia hopes (The DaVinci Code grossed $758 million), then expect an open checkbook to be handed to the duo (and writer Akiva Goldsman).

However, in these cash-strapped days Columbia may go for a cheaper option and decide not to give Hanks his usual $25 million payday.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once more – give the Robert Langdon role to Dennis Quaid!

Angels and Demons opens on May 15, 2009.

Source: Variety

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The Latest Batch O’ Movie Posters

Ross Miller — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:51:40 +0000

Today Screen Rant has a bunch of new posters for you viewing pleasure: Angels & Demons, Astro Boy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The first is for the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, which is based on the book by Dan Brown. One is in English, the other is in French; The first has a strange and intriguing feel to it – I like it. The second…. hmm, not so much. It’s kind of wasted because of how prominent Tom Hanks is, although I do like the statues and the bright light behind him.

Check them out below and see if you agree (click on them for large versions):

The next is for the upcoming animated film Astro Boy, based on the ’90s animated TV series. It’s not much (although that bright thing on his chest intrigues me) but it’s effective enough as a little teaser. I prefer the poster we got a about six months ago – it’s strange that we got more from one released last October than one released now:

And the last poster is an international one for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The less-than-good quality of the image itself doesn’t help (sorry about that – it’s not our fault!), but apart from that it’s a pretty good poster. It’s interesting to note that this is the first one to give Cyclops front page placement:

Out of the three, the first Angels & Demons poster sticks in my mind the most, simply because of the strange colour tone it has – I wonder if that’s representative of the film or whether it’s just as part of the marketing.

What do you make of these posters? Which is your favorite?

Astro Boy is out on October 23rd this year, Angels & Demons on May 15th and Wolverine on April 29th.

Sources: IESB.net, MTV Splash Page and Screeninglog

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New Angels And Demons Trailer

Rob Keyes — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:22:43 +0000

The new trailer for Angels and Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code has been released and it’s better than the first teaser.

I really disliked The Da Vinci Code in theaters and it was the first time I ever disliked Tom Hanks in a movie (and it’s not just because of his hair style in the film). So when I heard of the prequel novel being made into feature film, I was not excited at all.

The first movie unjustly made over three-quarters of a billion dollars ($758,239,851!) despite a poor 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. My expectations of the prequel were that people have learned from watching The Da Vinci Code and will avoid it… At least I would.

However, after seeing this trailer my final thought is it makes me go from “I’m definitely not seeing this in theaters” to “Maybe I’ll check this out in theaters.” I still do not have high expectations for this movie despite how good the book is.

Enough chatting, here’s the brand new trailer:

New trailer:

[See post to watch Flash video]

It looks like we didn’t post about the first teaser so here it is for you to watch and compare:

Original trailer:

[See post to watch Flash video]

So, what do you think of the trailers?

Angels and Demons is directed by Ron Howard and is of course based on the successful book by Dan Brown. It opens on May 15, 2009.

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Which Movie Trailers Will Air During The Super Bowl?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:51:06 +0000

We’ve all heard stories of the insane amounts of money it costs to run TV spots during the Super Bowl ($3 million for a 30 second spot this year) but it’s certainly not stopping several of the major studios from debuting their highly-anticipated trailers during this year’s broadcast from Tampa Bay.

The following snippet from a Variety article lists the confirmed trailers:

Confirmed for this year’s roster are high-profile titles like Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Star Trek” and “G.I. Joe“; Sony’s “Angels and Demons“; DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens“; and Universal’s “Land of the Lost” and its fourth installment in “The Fast and the Furious” franchise. Disney is also planning to use the game to raise the profile for Pixar’s next toon, “Up.”

As we expected a while ago, we will be getting the very first ever trailer for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as well as G.I. Joe which we haven’t had any new information on in a very long time.

One trailer that has already generated quite a bit of hype is that of Monsters vs. Aliens which DreamWorks Animation is promoting through a full 90-second trailer and the distribution of 125 million pairs of 3D glasses as the trailer will be aired in 3D. This blows my mind and I’m happy that we’re getting some innovative marketing that will get the kids involved.

Some studios such as Warner Bros. (who have Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter 6 and Watchmen coming out) and Fox (who has Wolverine, Ice Age 3 and Night at the Museum 2 debuting this year) have not purchased any ad time however they could be holding out till last minute to get a reduced rate by NBC to fill its remaining open slots.

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched television events in the world and is probably the only broadcast where people actually look forward to the commercials – now us movie buffs have even more to get excited about this year!

Are you excited for the plethora of teasers header our way during the February 1st broadcast?

Source: Variety

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Studios Ramp Up Production Prior To SAG Strike

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:30:48 +0000

As it stands, Hollywood studios are deadlocked in their contract negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild. That news stirs up foul memories of a year ago, when the Writers Guild of America was at a similar juncture with the studios… Soon after that there were no TV shows for about half a year.

And we all know what that did last year’s TV season.

In anticipation of the worst (which has ironically become the norm in these days and times), studios are turning to the pre-strike protocols they devised after the 2007 WGA strike, pushing as many films as they can into production so that the 2010-2011 movie roster doesn’t end up barren.

Check out the studio by studio list of the films that are either currently in production, or are headed into production in light of the looming strike.

The list of movies being fast-tracked are as follows:

COLUMBIA

Ruben Fleischer-directed “Zombieland”
Phillip Noyce-helmed “Edwin A. Salt” with Angelina Jolie
Stephen Chow-directed “The Green Hornet” with Seth Rogen

DISNEY

Tim Burton-directed “Alice in Wonderland”;
“Tron” sequel;
Robert Zemeckis-produced motion-capture film “Mars Needs Moms”;
Jon Turteltaub-directed “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” with Nicolas Cage;
Walt Becker- helmed “Wild Hogs 2″

FOX

James Cameron-directed “Avatar”
Shawn Levy-helmed “Date Night,” with Steve Carell and Tina Fey
“A-Team”
“Ramona”
Chris Columbus-directed “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
John Carney-directed “Town House”
“Alvin and the Chipmunks 2″
Tom Bezucha-directed “Orbit”
Rick Famuyiwa-helmed “Family Wedding”

MGM

Drew Goddard-directed “The Cabin in the Woods”
Kevin Tancharoen-helmed “Fame”
“The Matarese Circle,” which David Cronenberg is negotiating to direct Washington
Darren Aronofsky-helmed “RoboCop”

MARVEL
(Paramount distributing)

Jon Favreau-directed “Iron Man 2″ with Robert Downey Jr.
Kenneth Branagh-helmed “Thor”

MIRAMAX

John Madden-directed “The Debt” with Helen Mirren
“Man on a Train”
“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”

NEW LINE

“Torrente”
“Sex and the City 2″
Wesley Strick-directed “A Nightmare on Elm Street”
Len Wiseman-helmed “Gears of War”

PARAMOUNT

Kenny Ortega-directed “Footloose” with Zac Efron;
M. Night Shyamalan-helmed “The Last Airbender”
“Morning Glory”
“Beverly Hills Cop”
“Us and Them”

UNIVERSAL

Edgar Wright-directed “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” starring Michael Cera
Untitled Nancy Meyers-helmed comedy with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin
Peter Billingsley-directed “Couples Retreat” with Vince Vaughn;
Gore Verbinski-helmed “BioShock”
Nicholas Stoller-directed “Get Him to the Greek”
Ridley Scott-helmed “Nottingham” with Russell Crowe

WARNER BROS.

Clint Eastwood-directed “Human Factor” with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon
Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor- helmed “Jonah Hex”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the David Yates-directed final, two-part installment in the franchise, which begins production in February;
Alcon-financed “Book of Eli,” the Hughes brothers-directed Denzel Washington starrer
Louis Leterrier-helmed “Clash of the Titans”
Zack Snyder-directed “Suckerpunch.”

Not to worry, Summer movie enthusiasts: just about all of your big budget sequels (Transformers 2, Night at the Museum 2, Angels & Demons) are safely in production. Doomsday epic 2012 is also going to make the cut. Any other new films that studios hope to get off the ground, however, are going to face major problems without actors to act in them. But we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. For now, negotiations continue.

Personally I’m glad Iron Man 2, Thor, Green Hornet and Avatar made the cut; I’m hoping that Bioshock and Gears of War will be worthy of their excellent video game sources–and I’m praying that Jonah Hex is going to turn out well. Hex was badass on that Batman: The Animated Series episode.

How about you? Any movies you’re glad are in the pipeline? Any films you wish they’d kept on the shelf?

(Thank Variety for putting the list together.)

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Angels and Demons Banned By The Vatican

Niall Browne — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:41:55 +0000

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

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Angels & Demons Updates

Jamie Williams — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:38:53 +0000

Sure, it starred a mullet-wearing Forrest Gump and was helmed by Richie Cunningham.

But dammit, if The Da Vinci Code sucked.

However, it made $750 million. So it was obvious that the other best-selling Dan Brown novel Angels & Demons would head to the silver screen too.

After the WGA Strike delayed the adaptation from being finished by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (i.e. the man who helped ruin Batman before Mr. Nolan fixed everything), the production is now moving full-speed ahead.

Ayelet Zurer (i.e. best known for having flashback sex with Eric Bana in Munich) and Sir Alec Guinness impressionist Ewan McGregor have joined the cast that also includes the returning Tom Hanks – who stands to walk away with a lot of money from this film.

From the sound of things, both actors basically play sidekicks to Hanks’ Robert Langdon. Zurer is a Italian physicist trying to uncover the truth of her father’s death and McGregor plays “a powerful Vatican insider.”

And apparently, there’s some “terrorist plot” too.

Sorry if I’m more cynical than usual, but I have a feeling this is going to be just as stupid and boring as the previous film.

Maybe audiences will actually avoid this one…or maybe they’ll just go see Star Trek for the 4th time instead – sounds good to me!

Cameras roll this June in Europe (again under the direction of Ron Howard) for summer 2009 release.

Sources: Entertainment Weekly and Variety

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They Can Crack The Da Vinci Code, But They Can’t Crack A Script!

Niall Browne — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:19:10 +0000

Now that the writer’s strike is in full swing there appears to be quite a few planned films falling at the first hurdle. The most high profile being Angels and Demons, the sequel/prequel/virtual remake of The Da Vinci Code.

This is the film that Akiva Goldsman was paid four million dollars to write. Yes four million and it still needed work. Crazy.

What’s strange about this news, is that Naomi Watts has apparently signed on to play the female lead.

What I find quite surprising about this news is the quality of the talent involved. Sure, the first film had bucket loads of talent and it made almost $800 million around the world, but you wouldn’t exactly call it a critical success. I’m very surprised that Hanks and Howard are returning for this new film, as they’ve never made any sequels. Personally, I was hoping they would recast Hanks’ part as I feel he was seriously wrong for the role.

In the book Robert Langdon is described as looking like Harrison Ford. So who do they cast?
Tom Hanks. Bankable as he maybe, he can’t pull off uptight and grouchy as well as Ford. I feel they should have went for Dennis Quaid. But that’s just me thinking out loud.

The most curious thing is that there hasn’t been any word whether or not Hanks’ bizarre hair will be returning for the new film.

Angels and Demons is still scheduled for release on May 15 2009.

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