Hey Yo, Draven here.
Deadline is reporting that Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Brian Grazer and David Koepp will all be returning for the third film in Sony’s Robert Langdon series, INFERNO. Tom Hanks will reprise his role as Robert Langdon, which started with 2006’s THE DA VINCI CODE and continued with ANGELS & DEMONS in 2009. Ron Howard directed both features and will be returning to direct, INFERNO. Brian Grazer will be producing and the script will be written by David Koepp, who previously wrote the screenplay for ANGELS & DEMONS. Sony has announced a release date of December 18, 2015.
INFERNO is actually the fourth book in Dan Brown’s popular book series. We had previously heard that Sony wanted to make a film version of the third book, THE LOST SYMBOL. It now appears they are going to skip over the third novel, entirely. The books are episodic and self contained so this shouldn’t be an issue for concerned fans of the series. (ANGELS & DEMONS was actually the first book in the series, but was made as a sequel to the film version of THE DA VINCI CODE.)
Here is Amazon’s description of the novel, INFERNO:
In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.
Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.
I don’t have a lot of interest for this project as I have not read any of Dan Brown’s novels and didn’t really enjoy either film. I am a little surprised though that Ron Howard is coming back as he had previously announced that he was not going to direct THE LOST SYMBOL, but is now confirmed to direct INFERNO. Is INFERNO just better source material to make a film from? Is Sony paying Howard a lot more to return, and if so, why? His direction didn’t really stand out to most people and wasn’t a reason for the success of the previous films.
Is Howard just looking for another hit film? THE DILEMMA was a big box office disappointment when it was released in 2011. Plus, the last non-Langdon film Howard directed that grossed over $100 million domestically was A BEAUTIFUL MIND in 2001. (I doubt RUSH will be a breakaway hit when it is released in September.) So maybe he realizes this is his bread and butter?
What are your thoughts though? Are you a fan of the book series and if so did you enjoy the previous films? How is INFERNO compared to the other novels in the series?
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