Expectations are running high for Ron Howard's film version of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code.
With a North American box office topping $77 million US on its opening weekend and the worldwide take reaching $224 million, there is sure to be plans for a followup to The Da Vinci Code.
Howard, his producer Brian Grazer and Sony Pictures can turn to Brown's Angels & Demons.
Published in 2000, Angels & Demons, symbologist Robert Langdon's first adventure, predated The Da Vinci Code by three years, but would work as a sequel.
Brown has been promising a third Langdon adventure for two years, but has yet to announce a date.
At 49, Tom Hanks, who plays Langdon in The Da Vinci Code, is not getting any younger, so production should ideally begin in late 2007 or early '08 for a summer '09 release.
In Angels & Demons, Langdon stumbles on a terrorist plot to blow up Vatican City on the very day the Council of Cardinals begin voting for a new pope.
The Illuminaati, a secret society and long-time sworn enemy of the Catholic Church, have stolen a canister of anti-matter and hidden it somewhere in Vatican City.
More powerful than a nuclear bomb and smaller, the anti-matter is set to explode at midnight.
Langdon teams up with Vittoria Vetra, one of the physicists who trapped the anti-matter, to find the canister before it destroys not just the physical representation of Catholicism but the spiritual as well seeing all the church's cardinals are gathered in the endangered city.
I'm going to pretend Grazer and Howard have entrusted me with casting privileges for Angels & Demons.
I'd love to replace Hanks with Poseidon's Josh Lucas or even, heaven forbid, Tom Cruise, but that's not going to happen, so Hanks will fill out Langdon's loafers again.
I will insist he get a new hair style.
Vittoria Vetra is described as having luminescent Mediterranean flesh and deep sable eyes. There's also something about her having a brilliant mind, but that's a secondary quality for the babe in these films. We need a stunning Italian, French or Spanish actress because Vittoria doesn't have time to change out of her khaki shorts and sleeveless white top before she is whisked off to Vatican City. Penelope Cruz played a doctor in Sahara and is an eyeful in shorts as is Maria Bello, but I'm casting Monica Bellucci, a true European beauty who's also a dynamite actress.
Maximilian Kohler is the wheelchair-bound director of the secret science facility where Vittoria and her father developed the anti-matter. One of Germany's finest character actors, Maximilian Schell, would be around 78 by the time filming began and he looks frail, but he still has boundless energy and would nail this role. Should he not be available, call Anthony Hopkins.
The Hassassin, the villain of Angels & Demons, is cut from the same cloth as the albino assassin in The Da Vinci Code. This time he is Arab, but just as deadly and unconscionable, meaning he relishes his assignment to murder the four cardinals who are the main papal candidates. Hands down this one should go to Lost's Naveen Andrews.
Father Carlo Ventresca is Langdon's chief ally inside the Vatican. He was the late pope's personal assistant and is described as a handsome, physically fit man in his late 30s. Ideally, an Italian actor is needed, which leads us to Raoul Bova, the Italian hunk who romanced Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun. Though Alessandro Nivola (Goal!, Inventing the Abbotts and Jurassic Park III) also fits the bill.
Commander Olivetti, the head of security at Vatican City, is forced into collaborating with Langdon and Vittoria. He's the no-nonsense head of the prestigious Vatican Swiss Guards. Ralph Fiennes, a master of accents and a true chameleon, has the screen presence and authority to play Olivetti.
Cardinal Mortati is the man in charge of running the papal election. It's a gem role for an actor in his 70s. The Sopranos' Dominic Chianese is 75, a solid character actor and would look convincing in a black and purple cassock. Did I forget to mention he's Italian?
Gunther Glick, the BBC reporter, is the closest thing to comic relief in Angels & Demons. He's the man The Hassassin chooses to communicate with. Kenneth Branaugh likes choice character roles and doesn't shy away from playing the buffoon.
Chinita Macri, Glick's camera operator, is all sass and quite obviously the brains behind this dynamic duo. Naomi Harris can be both seductive and intimidating, which is what Macri must be if the role is to be more than eye candy.
