After years spent developing Dan Brown’s third Robert Langdon mystery The Lost Symbol into a feature film, director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks have apparently decided to give up on Brown’s third novel altogether and skip right to the fourth, Inferno. According to Deadline, the next film in the blockbuster franchise is now set to begin production in April, 2015.
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The first film, The Da Vinci Code, found Harvard University professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) uncovering the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The second, Angels & Demons, found him rooting out corruption in the halls of the Vatican. Inferno will feature an amnesiac Robert Langdon investigating a plot to unleash the deadly plague that somehow ties into Dante’s Inferno.
Presumably in the next film Langdon will combat international malaise inspired by Dante’s Purgatory, followed by a final film that’s just Tom Hanks sitting on the beach sipping martinis and feeling like his legacy is secure after unlocking the secrets of Dante’s Paradise.
Angels & Demons screenwriter David Koepp will return to adapt the third film in the series. As much as we like to scoff as the hokey pseudo-history behind Dan Brown’s thrillers, the first two movies have grossed over $1.2 billion internationally. So the odds are good that a whole lot of people are looking forward to Inferno. We hope they’re satisfied.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
