Angels and Demons: Tom Hanks and Ron Howard

The Hollywood Reporter is saying Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are in the final stages of joining the production of The Da Vinci Code prequel, Angels and Demons.

Hanks is about to receive one of the biggest paydays ever to reprise his role as Harvard professor Robert Langdon; Sony declined comment about the status of the highly anticipated project, which also derives from a Dan Brown best-seller.

An early January start date has been scheduled for production on Angels and Demons; another A-list cast is being hired in supporting roles. Personally, while I found Angels and Demons a little over the top at the end, the book overall was truly entertaining and just as exciting, if not more exciting, than The Da Vinci Code.

At the same time, I felt Ron Howard completely botched The Da Vinci Code, but hopefully bad reviews will allow him to learn from his mistakes. It would have been cool had Columbia sought a different, more dynamic director for this prequel, but who's to argue with $750 million in global box office receipts? (Of course, if The Da Vinci Code the movie had been good enough to warm over critics in the U.S., it probably would have made a lot more money than a piddling three-quarter billion)