November 4, 2008

Some older stuff from the movie making, but still cool :)

October 31, 2008

If you look closely the trailer under, in a part where Illuminati letters spin, you can see word "altarsofscience". If you go on the web site www.altarsofscience.com you can see the bomb under Vatican ticking.

Time on the right side is time until movie hits the big screen.

Pretty cool :)

Source -Trailer - thx Jake for tip

October 30, 2008

Source - movie-list.com

October 28, 2008

October 18, 2008

Yesterday I got tip on my email that Offical Angels & Demons site is live. Nothing much on it yet, just same picture as the above Teaser poster.

You can check the offical site at www.angelsanddemons.com

Source - thx Jake for tip

September 24, 2008

Was at UCLA today and stumbled upon the set for Ron Howard's "Angels and Demons", the prequel to "The Da Vinci Code".  Got to see them shoot about 15 seconds of footage from pretty far off.  Nothing too exciting, just a scene of Tom Hanks and another person walking down a corridor talking.  Apparently they are using Royce Hall as a stand in for the Cathedral at the Vatican, since all the controversy from the first film led the REAL Vatican to ban the production from filming there.  Here are some pictures I took, including some slick Alfa Romero's with Euro plates, mock stain glass windows that have been added to Royce for effect, a picture of the front of the building (complete with green screens and all the fixins for a big budget film), a picture of Tom Hank's trailer (he was inside at the time), and a picture of Tom Hanks as he rode away from the set on his bicycle.  He said hi to me and a small group of onlookers as he rode off.  Really nice guy.  No pictures of Ron Howard or Ewan McGregor, unfortunately, though I distinctly heard  Howard's voice yelling "Action!" and "Cut!".  Pretty nice surprise on a boring Wednesday.

Source - collider.com

September 24, 2008

It is the set for Tom Hanks blockbuster Angels and Demons, the sequel to The Da Vinci Code.

The original book by Dan Brown so infuriated the Catholic Church that the Vatican banned director Ron Howard from filming there.

As a result, Howard and his cast have been forced to relocate to Los Angeles, where set designers are painstakingly recreating a scale model of the Vatican.

The film is set in Rome and two key locations are the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. The makers were denied entry to both.

Now Howard is hoping that audiences will not be able to spot the real from the fake when Angels and Demons is released next year. They have also used the former Royal Palace at Caserta, near Naples, as a double for the Vatican interior.

The film sees Hanks reprise his role as Harvard professor Robert Langdon. This time he is on a mission to save the Vatican from destruction

Declaring the ban, Father Marco Fibbi, a Vatican spokesman, said: "Usually we read the script but in this case it wasn't necessary. Just the name Dan Brown was enough. Angels and Demons peddles a type of fantasy that damages our common religious beliefs, just like The Da Vinci Code did."

The Catholic Church previously described The Da Vinci Code as "a pot pourri of nonsense, a phantasmagorical cocktail of inventions".

Angels and Demons co-stars Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgard.

During shooting in Rome earlier this year, Hanks won widespread admiration when he halted filming to escort a passing bride to her wedding at the Pantheon.

Source - telegraph.co.uk

September 23, 2008

Fans of the book "Angels and Demons" keep streaming into the churches in Rome where the plot unfolds, but the film crew turning it into a movie has been banned from church properties by the Rome archdiocese.

The plot is not overtly anti-church, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey but some of the most graphic scenes are not something with which the The Vatican wants to be associated.

"I mean it's kind of hard to give permission to film two murders, especially when the two victims are cardinals and one dies by having earth stuffed in his mouth and the other one is set on fire hanging above the altar with the sanctuary lamps," said Father Greg Apparcel, Rector, Santa Susanna Church.

The scene takes place in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which the book puts in the wrong piazza - one of a string of glaring errors.

The novel has the sculptures on one of Rome's most famous fountains, the Four Rivers in Piazza Navonna, representing Europe...

Read rest HERE

Source - cbsnews.com

September 22, 2008

In another ET exclusive, our own Mark Steines is in Rome, Italy with none other than Oscar winners Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer to investigate the incredible buzz behind 'Angels & Demons' -- the highly anticipated prequel to 'The Da Vinci Code'!

"I'm Tom Hanks -- check out our special sneak preview of 'Angels and Demons,'" the A-list star tells ET.

The film's producers chose only one show to visit the top-secret set, deep inside the Vatican City, where Hanks' Robert Langdon must confront a shadowy secret society, the Illuminati, to rescue four kidnapped cardinals and solve a conspiracy that may put the future of the Roman Catholic Church in peril...

Read rest HERE

Source - ETonline.com

June 25, 2008

The Vatican has banned “Angels & Demons” from shooting in Rome churches, a Vatican official confirmed Monday, saying “The Da Vinci Code” prequel is incompatible with religious sentiment.

Sony thriller, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, started rolling in Rome on June 5. Last year the filmmakers requested permits from Rome authorities to shoot in the monumental church of Santa Maria del Popolo and the smaller Santa Maria della Vittoria, where key scenes in the Dan Brown bestseller are set.

Under Italy’s treaty with the Vatican, both the Italian government and the Vatican must OK the permits, and the Vatican balked.

“We often provide our churches to productions whose purposes are compatible with religious sentiment,” said Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Rome diocese. “But not when the film pursues a type of fantasy that damages common religious sentiment, as in the case of ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ ” he added.

Read rest HERE

Source - variety.com

June 25, 2008

TOM HANKS and director RON HOWARD have been forbidden from filming in two Roman churches by religious leaders.

The pair is making the prequel to controversial film The Da Vinci Code in the Italian city and asked permission to shoot in two churches considered vital to the storyline in Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons.

But Rome's diocese has told producers they'll have to film elsewhere, due to the controversial nature of the plot.

A spokesman for the diocese says, "It's a film that treats religious issues in a way that contrasts with common religious sentiment.

"We would be helping them create a work that might well be beautiful but that does not conform to our views."

The film deals with suggestions that Jesus was a married father when he died. Dan Brown's books about the mysterious Opus Dei, a secret society which protects the bloodline of Jesus, and Howard and Hanks' 2006 The Da Vinci Code film have upset Catholic leaders throughout the world.

But despite the ban, director Howard will be allowed to film exteriors of the churches, Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria.

Source - showbizspy.com

June 25, 2008

 
A girl's wedding day is arguably the most nerve-wracking of her life, and she certainly goes to sleep the night before hoping everything will run smoothly. Of all the things that could throw a spanner in the works, however, a Hollywood movie star blocking the way to the church with his latest production is not usually top of her list of worries.

That's exactly what happened to one Rome bride-to-be this week, however, when the path to the church was blocked by Tom Hanks and the crew of Angels And Demons, who were busy lensing scenes from the latest adaptation of the The Da Vinci Code author's work outside the Pantheon.

The cameras stopped rolling momentarily, though, allowing Tom to help the young lady and her father on their way. The movie heavyweight chivalrously offered the bride his arm and even helped keep her long veil from trailing on the ground.

His good deed done, Tom got back to work on set with Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer – last seen opposite Dennis Quaid in Vantage Point. In the new flick the raven-haired beauty's character Vittoria joins forces with Tom's brooding symbologist Robert Langdon on a mission to unlock the secret world of the deadly ancient brotherhood known as the Illuminati, before they can kill again.

Source - hellomagazine.com

June 9, 2008


Angels & Demons is now filming in Rome and Trovacinema.it was there to catch Tom Hanks in action as Robert Langdon, and Ron Howard directing the cast and crew.

Source - slashfilm.com

June 9, 2008

Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer has nabbed the female lead opposite Tom Hanks in Columbia Pictures' "Da Vinci Code" prequel "Angels & Demons."

Ewan McGregor is in talks to join the thriller, which is based on the Dan Brown best-seller.

McGregor is set to take on the role of a powerful Vatican insider who assists Langdon.

Story centers on religious art scholar Robert Langdon (Hanks), who once again finds himself entangled with powerful forces with ancient roots: the Illuminati -- the most powerful underground organization in history -- and the Catholic Church. Zurer will play Vittoria Vetra, an Italian scientist who joins forces with Langdon.

Ron Howard is directing from an Akiva Goldsman script.

Zurer is best known in her native Israel, where she has starred in "Nina's Tragedies" and the TV series "In Treatment," which was recently adapted in the U.S. by HBO. Her U.S. film credits include "Munich" and Columbia's "Vantage Point." She will next be seen in the Samuel Goldwyn release "Fugitive Pieces."

Source - Variety.com

June 8, 2008

Robert Langdon is back! This time, in the "prequel" to The Da Vinci Code, he is facing one of the most powerful underground organizations in history, the Illuminati. In the Angels & Demons movie, Langdon must stop the Illuminati from destroying its most hated enemy, the Catholic Church, which they plan to attack at the heart of their most treasured and revered place, Vatican City. Our hero races to Rome to uncover the 400 year old clues and symbols that will help him save the Vatican, all of which happen to be in the ancient Illuminati safe house. The heart stopping thriller will have you in tense mode as the never ending battle between science and religion comes to a climax.

First published in 2000, the novel Angels & Demons preceded The Da Vinci Code, but was proposed for film adaptation as a sequel. It became an international bestseller, surpassing The Da Vinci Code in its reviews.

It was in 2003 that Sony Pictures acquired the rights (with a deal to its author Dan Brown) to the Angels & Demons movie. With The Da Vinci Code being a huge success, grossing $218 million domestically and $758 million worldwide despite poor reviews, the decision to go ahead with the plans for Angels & Demons was easy. The movie was originally scheduled to release in 2008, but due to the writer's strike, it is one of the first major projects to be postponed until 2009.

The release is schadualed for May, 15th 2009.

Source - www.americanchronicle.com