Tom Hanks Talks Angels & Demons

15 May 2009

0Comments | Comment on this Article

The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown.

Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals.

When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history - he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church.

Tom Hanks is one of Americas most beloved and successful film stars. He has won back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor in 1993/94 and is the third most successful actor in terms of box office totals.

The trailer is quite action packed; are there a lot of action sequences in the movie?

Yeah, there is, but there are no fist fights. It’s not like Langdon grabs a machine gun. He does actually shoot a gun, but only to break a window. That’s it. There’s a clock that’s running in this movie, not only the bomb of antimatter that might explode, but there’s also the papal election that is ongoing.

Robert Langdon has to stop this trail of Illuminati-murders before that election happens, because if he doesn’t that means that the papal election has been hijacked. If that’s possible that means the purity of the status quo, which might be a good or bad thing, is going to be forever upset.

There is a great line where Langdon walks into the Vatican as an adversary, here on both sides, and says: 'You guys don’t pull your holy sea stuff and I don’t pull my Priory of Sion stuff.' It’s like a gentleman’s agreement. But he also says: 'Look, I don’t study symbols, because I don’t think they are important. They are: How they have a mark in our lives and our society. I just hope that I can help.' It is very straight forward, and he is able to get on with it.

In the book your character is quite romantic with Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer), is that also the case in the film?

Actually, if there’s any romance, it is hidden deeply behind their desire to go stop a cardinal from being killed. There’s not a lot of time to pause for romance before the pope is elected. Because Dan Brown created Langdon with Angels & Demons, he had more time to spin out who he was.

By the time he got to The Da Vinci Code he was all business all the time. Now, because this is the second movie, the second story of Langdon, we didn’t have time to explore the romantic notions that might exist between a very healthy and robust Robert Langdon and then a very healthy and attractive Vittoria Vetra.

I like to assume that at the end of the movie they retire to perhaps a cup of espresso or maybe a glass of wine at the Hassler Hill Hotel at the top of the Spanish Steps or maybe a smaller place somewhere in the outside of Rome, but you just don’t see it.

Ron Howard has talked about using a more artistic licence and being less reverential in this film. Do you think this is also true with your interpretation of the Robert Langdon character?

Well, because this is the second one we do have that opportunity. Langdon has this truth in his pocket that he did not have in the book. In the book this was the first time this all happened, so irreverence to a degree, I would almost say it’s like a competitive spirit that he has.

He’s almost confrontational with them, and it actually fits very well. There’s a lot of extrapolation that goes on in this book, because quite frankly Dan Brown wrote it before you guys even existed.

0Comments | Be the first to comment!