Angels & Demons is a 2009 American film adaptation of Dan Brown’s eponymous novel. It is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, another Brown film adaptation, even though the novel Angels & Demons was published first and takes place before the novel The Da Vinci Code. Filming took place in Rome, Italy, and the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Tom Hanks reprises the lead role of Robert Langdon, while director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also returned.

Development

In 2003, Sony acquired the film rights to Angels & Demons (2000) 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. 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.”⁸ 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.”

The filmmakers reduced the part of the story that occurs at CERN to being a short introductory sequence, and Langdon does not visit CERN at all. Also, the way in which antimatter is produced was changed due to advice offered by the scientists at CERN. According to these scientists, the technique described by Dan Brown in his book would have required two billion years to produce the necessary amount of antimatter. In the film the newly developed Large Hadron Collider (first run on September 10, 2008, i.e., it did not exist when Dan Brown wrote his book) is used to create the antimatter.

McGregor’s character was changed from Italian to Northern Irish, to accommodate the Scottish actor.

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. The soundtrack also features violinist Joshua Bell. The soundtrack was released on May 12 of 2009.