Angels & Demons (film) 1 Angels & Demons (film) Angels & Demons Theatrical poster Directed by Ron Howard Produced by Brian Grazer Ron Howard John Calley Screenplay by David Koepp Akiva Goldsman Based on Angels & Demons by Dan Brown Starring Tom Hanks Ewan McGregor Ayelet Zurer Stellan Skarsgård Pierfrancesco Favino Nikolaj Lie Kaas Armin Mueller-Stahl Music by Hans Zimmer Cinematography Salvatore Totino Editing by Daniel P. Hanley Mike Hill Studio Imagine Entertainment Skylark Productions Panorama Films Distributed by Columbia Pictures Release dates • May 14, 2009 (Australia) • May 15, 2009 (United States) Running time 138 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $150 million Box office $485,930,816 Angels & Demons is a 2009 American mystery thriller directed by Ron Howard and based on Dan Brown's novel by the same name. As a film it is the sequel to the 2006 film, The Da Vinci Code, also directed by Ron Howard. The novel was published first and The Da Vinci Code followed it. Filming of Angels & Demons took place in Rome, Italy, and the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Tom Hanks returns to play in the lead role — Robert Langdon — as do producer Brian Grazer, composer Hans Zimmer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. Angels & Demons (film) 2 Plot Under the watchful eyes of Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) initiates the Large Hadron Collider and creates three vials of antimatter particles larger than any that have ever been produced before. Almost immediately, Father Silvano is killed and one of the vials of antimatter goes missing. At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church is mourning the sudden death of Pope Pius XVI in Rome and prepares for the papal conclave to elect the next Pope. The Camerlengo Patrick McKenna assumes temporary control of the Vatican. The Illuminati kidnap four of the 'preferiti' (the favourite cardinals to be elected pope) before the conclave enters seclusion and threaten to kill one candidate every hour and destroy all of Vatican City at midnight, using the missing vial of antimatter as a bomb. The Vatican summons symbologist Robert Langdon from Harvard University and Vittoria from CERN to help them save the four preferiti and locate the vial. Langdon listens to the Illuminati's message and deduces that the four cardinals will die at the four altars of the "Path of Illumination," marked by statues of angels in locations relevant to the four classical elements. Over the objections of Commander Maximilian Richter, head of the Swiss Guard, but with McKenna's consent, Langdon is granted access to the Vatican Secret Archives. He examines Galileo Galilei's banned book with Vetra. Following the clues and accompanied by Inspector General Ernesto Olivetti, and Claudio Vincenzi of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps, they arrive at the Chigi Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. There they find Cardinal Ebner dead, suffocated with soil and branded with an ambigrammatic word "Earth". They verify the second location is Saint Peter's Square but are unable to save Cardinal Lamassé; his lungs punctured and his body branded with "Air". While Vetra studies Silvano's diaries, Langdon and the Vatican officers locate the third church, Santa Maria della Vittoria, but are unable to save Cardinal Guidera from being burned to death. His body is branded with an ambigrammatic word, "Fire". The assassin appears and brutally kills everyone except Langdon, who escapes. Langdon and two Carabinieri officers race to the Water altar, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, where the assassin murders the officers and drops a bound and weighted Cardinal Baggia into the fountain. Langdon, assisted by bystanders, saves the cardinal, who tells him the Illuminati's lair is Castel Sant'Angelo. There Langdon and Vetra discover a hidden passageway leading to the Vatican, being used as a hideout for the assassin. Discovering a case with marks for five branding irons, they realize the fifth brand is for the camerlengo but are confronted by the assassin before they can alert McKenna. The assassin spares their lives, then cryptically warns them that his contractors were "men of God". He escapes but is then killed when his car explodes. Inside the Vatican, Langdon and Vetra find Commander Richter hovering over McKenna with a gun, the Vatican symbol branded into McKenna's chest. Richter is shot by the Guards, and Langdon takes a key that slips from Richter's hand. The stolen antimatter vial is found in St. Peter's Tomb below the church, but the battery life is too low to risk re-connecting it to a battery. McKenna, a former military pilot, seizes the vial and uses an awaiting helicopter to fly above the Vatican. At a high altitude, he parachutes out as the antimatter bomb explodes overhead. McKenna is hailed a hero and savior, and the cardinals move to elect him pope. Langdon and Vetra use Richter's key to watch a security video showing McKenna speaking to Richter before the attack. The video reveals that it is McKenna, not the Illuminati, who masterminded the scheme; intending to use the incident to be named Pope and to rally the church's most conservative followers to his side. The recording is shown to the Papal conclave, and when it dawns on McKenna that he has been exposed he flees to a remote recess in the building where he is able to commit suicide. The Vatican officially announces that McKenna died due to internal injuries suffered during his parachute landing, and Cardinal Baggia is named Pope Luke I, with Cardinal Strauss as the new camerlengo. Strauss thanks Langdon for his assistance and gives Langdon Galileo's "Diagramma Veritatis" for his research, requesting only that Langdon's will contain a bequest that it be returned to the Vatican, and that any future references he makes to the Catholic Church in his future publications be done "gently". Angels & Demons (film) 3 Cast • Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, a Harvard University professor of symbology • Ewan McGregor as the Camerlengo Patrick McKenna • Ayelet Zurer as Vittoria Vetra, a CERN scientist whose antimatter experiment has been stolen by the Illuminati • Stellan Skarsgård as Commander Maximilian Richter, head of the Swiss Guard • Pierfrancesco Favino as Inspector Ernesto Olivetti of the Gendarme Corps of Vatican City State • Nikolaj Lie Kaas as The Assassin • Armin Mueller-Stahl as Cardinal Strauss, Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Papal Conclave • David Pasquesi as Claudio Vincenzi, a Vatican police officer sent to summon Robert Langdon • Thure Lindhardt as Lieutenant Chartrand, officer of the Swiss Guard • Elya Baskin as Cardinal Petrov, an eligible member of the Papal Conclave • Kristof Konrad as the Polish Reporter for TVP • Pasquale Cassalia as the reporter for RAI • Auguste Fredrik as the Swiss Guardsman • Endre Hules as the CERN scientist • Alfred Molina – opening voiceover (uncredited) Production Development In 2003, Sony acquired the film rights to Angels & Demons along with The Da Vinci Code in a deal with author Dan Brown. In May 2006, following the release of the 2006 film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, Sony hired screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, to adapt Angels & Demons. Filming was originally to begin in February 2008 for a December 2008 release, but because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, production was pushed back for a May 15, 2009 release. David Koepp rewrote the script before shooting began. Director Ron Howard chose to treat Angels & Demons as a sequel to the previous film, rather than a prequel, since many had read the novel after The Da Vinci Code. He liked the idea that Langdon had been through one adventure and become a more confident character. Howard was also more comfortable taking liberties in adapting the story because the novel is less popular than The Da Vinci Code. Producer Brian Grazer said they were too "reverential" when adapting The Da Vinci Code, which resulted in it being "a little long and stagey." This time, "Langdon doesn't stop and give a speech. When he speaks, he's in motion." Howard concurred "it's very much about modernity clashing with antiquity and technology vs. faith, so these themes, these ideas are much more active whereas the other one lived so much in the past. The tones are just innately so different between the two stories." Differences between novel and film In the novel, the papal conclave attracts relatively little public attention. In the wake of the huge international interest in the 2005 election of Pope Benedict XVI, this was judged to be out of date, There are many differences between the novel and the movie. The character of CERN Director Maximillian Kohler does not appear in the movie. The Italian Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca is changed to the Northern Irish Patrick McKenna, portrayed by Ewan Mcgregor. The Boeing X-33 that takes Langdon from the United States to Geneva and then to Rome is absent in the film. In the novel, Commander Olivetti is the commander of Swiss Guard, and his second in command is Captain Rocher, whereas in the film, Richter is the head of the Swiss Guard. In the novel, the Assassin contacts members of the BBC in order to influence how they present the story of his activities, but this does not happen in the movie. The character Leonardo Vetra is named Silvano Bentivoglio in the film, and is not related to Vittoria. Angels & Demons (film) 4 Filming Shooting began on June 4, 2008 in Rome under the fake working title Obelisk. The filmmakers scheduled three weeks of exterior location filming because of a predicted 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike on June 30.