Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons (film)
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Angels & Demons is a 2009 film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel of the same name, released on May 14, 2009. It is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code (2006), another Brown film adaptation, although the novel Angels & Demons was published and takes place before the novel The Da Vinci Code. Filming took place in Rome and the Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. Tom Hanks reprises the lead role of Robert Langdon, while director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also returned.
Production

Development
In 2003, Sony acquired the film rights to Angels & Demons (2009) along with The Da Vinci Code (2003) in a deal with author Dan Brown. In May 2006, following the film 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.[3] Filming was originally to begin in February 2008 for a December 2008 release,[4] but because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, production was pushed back for a May 15, 2009 release.[5] David Koepp rewrote the script before shooting began.[6]

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 Langdon had been through one adventure and became a more confident character.[7] Howard was also more comfortable taking liberties in adapting the story because the novel is less popular than The Da Vinci Code.[8] 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."[9] 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."[8]

The filmmakers cut down the amount of time Langdon spends in the novel at CERN, and also received advice during a visit to the facility to make the plot more realistic: it would take two billion years to produce the antimatter in the novel, so CERN suggested other physics involving antimatter for the new plot. McGregor's character was changed from Italian to Irish, to accommodate the Scottish actor.[7]

[edit] Filming

Shooting began on June 4, 2008 in Rome under the fake working title "Obelisk".[10] The filmmakers scheduled three weeks of exterior location filming because of a predicted 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike on June 30. The rest of the film would be shot at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles, California, to allow for this halt.[11] Roman Catholic Church officials found The Da Vinci Code offensive and forbade filming in their churches, so these scenes were shot at Sony.[10] The Caserta Palace doubled for the inside of the Vatican,[10] and the Biblioteca Angelica was used for the Vatican Library.[12] Filming took place at the University of California, Los Angeles in July.[13] Sony and Imagine Entertainment organized an eco-friendly shoot, selecting when to shoot locations based on how much time and fuel it would save, using cargo containers to support set walls or greenscreens, as well as storing props for future productions or donating them to charity.[14]
Howard hated that the Writers Guild strike forced him to shoot the film during summer, where crowds gathered to watch the filming of scenes, and some would even sing the Happy Days theme at him. Regardless, he felt the quick shoot allowed him to refine the naturalism he had employed on his previous film Frost/Nixon, often using handheld cameras to lend an additional energy to the scenes. Hanks interrupted filming of one scene in order to help a bride and groom get through the crowds to their wedding on time; Zurer recalled the bride told Hanks "Your hair is much better right now." McGregor said the Pope's funeral was the dullest sequence to film, as they were just walking across staircases. Then, "Someone started singing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' [and] it became the funeral theme tune."[7]

When recreating the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, production designer Allan Cameron and visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton recognized the 80 feet (24 m) tall soundstages were only half the size of the real church. They rebuilt the area around and the crypts beneath St. Peter's baldachin, including the bottoms of the columns and Saint Peter's statue, and surrounded it with a 360 degree greenscreen so the rest could be built digitally. Cameron had twenty crew members photograph as much as they could inside the Sistine Chapel, and had artists sketch, photograph and enlarge recreations of the paintings and mosiacs from the photographs. Cameron chose to present the Sistine Chapel as it was before it was cleaned up, because he preferred the contrast the smoky, muted colors would present with the cardinals. Although the chapel was built to full size, the Sala Regia was made smaller to fit inside the stage.[15]

The Saint Peter's Square and the Piazza Navona sets were built on the same backlot; after completion of scenes at the former, six weeks were spent converting the set, knocking down the Basilica side and excavating 3 1/2 feet (1 m) of tarmac to build the fountain. As there had been filming at the real Piazza Navona, the transistion between it and the replica had to be seamless. To present the Santa Maria del Popolo undergoing rennovation, a police station in Rome opposite the real church was used for the exterior; the scaffolding would hide that it was not the church. Cameron built the interior of Santa Maria del Popolo on the same set as the recreated Santa Maria della Vittoria to save money; the scaffolding also disguised this. The film's version of Santa Maria della Vittoria was larger than the real one, so it would accommodate the cranes used to film the scene. To film the Pantheon's interior, two aediculae and the tomb of Raphael were rebuilt to scale at a height of 30 feet (9 m), while the rest was greenscreen. Because of the building's symmetrical layout, the filmmakers were able to shoot the whole scene over two days and redress the real side to pretend it was another.[15] The second unit took photographs of the Large Hadron Collider and pasted these in scenes set at CERN.[16]

[edit] Music

Hans Zimmer returned to compose the score for the sequel. He chose to develop the "Chevaliers de Sangreal" track from the end of The Da Vinci Code as Langdon's main theme in the film.[17] The soundtrack also features violinist Joshua Bell.

[edit] Perception

CBS News interviewed a priest working in Santa Susanna, who stated the Church did not want their churches to be associated with scenes of murder. A tour guide also stated most priests do not object to tourists who visit out of interest after reading the book, a trend which will continue after people see the film. "I think they are aware that it's, you know, a work of fiction and that it's bringing people into their churches."[18] Grazer deemed it odd that although The Da Vinci Code was a more controversial novel, they had more freedom shooting its film adaptation in London and France.[9] Italian authorities hoped the filmmakers corrected the location errors in the novel, to limit the amount of explaining they will have to do for confused tourists.[10]

William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League, has not called for a boycott, but has requested Catholics inform others about alleged anti-Catholic sentiments in the story. "My goal... is to give the public a big FYI: Enjoy the movie, but know that it is a fable. It is based on malicious myths, intentionally advanced by Brown-Howard." A Sony executive responded they were disappointed Donohue had not created attention for the film closer to its release date.[19] Howard criticized Donohue for prejudging the film, responding it could not be called anti-Catholic since Langdon protects the church, and because of its depiction of priests who support science.[20]

Hindu spokesman Rajan Zed felt Angels & Demons would bring confusion and create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences. He added that the filmmakers should have handled the subject more sensitively as cinema is a very powerful medium.[21] In India, parts of the movie were reportedly censored following complaints from local Christian communities.[22]

The official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has called the film ""harmless entertainment", giving it a positive review and acknowledging "The theme is always the same: a sect versus the church, [but] this time, the church is on the side of the good guys."[23][24] Beforehand, it had stated it would not approve the film, while La Stampa reported the Vatican would boycott it. However, it also quoted Archbishop Velasio De Paolis as saying a boycott would probably just have the "boomerang effect" of drawing more attention to Angels & Demons and make it more popular.[25]

The official censor board of the Philippines, the Movie And Television Review And Classification Board (MTRCB), unanimously gave the movie an R-13 rating, which meant everyone aged 13 and over can watch the film. The same censor board gave an R-18 rating to The Da Vinci Code.[26]