They would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for those kids and their Daily Variety.

The venerable showbiz oracle reports that the biggest project to make it under the wire if there is a writer’s strike next week will be ANGELS AND DEMONS, the sequel to THE DA VINCI CODE again starring Tom Hanks, again directed by Ron Howard and again written (only much faster) by Akiva Goldman. Goldman is frantically hammering away at a final draft of the script in case he is required to stop work. The script would then presumably be rolled up, put into a bottle suspended in a corrosive vinegar solution and locked with a codex mechanism until February, the scheduled start of shooting. After an edge-of-your-seat fight sequence, the bottle will be opened up and examined for clues on how to make THIS one entertaining.

By the way, THE DA VINCI CODE novel describe’s Hanks’ character as “resembling Harrison Ford.” Too bad THOSE talks didn’t pan out.

ANGELS AND DEMONS was actually published before THE DA VINCI CODE, but they’re turning it into a sequel. I got a kick out of this paragraph in the Variety article:

Hanks’ character, a Harvard-based expert on religious symbols, this time sleuths a mystery that involves a secret society and a conspiracy that leads to Vatican City and threatens the future of the Catholic Church.

This time. Good heavens, what will they think of next! Think there’ll be a 7-foot-tall albino self-flagellating enforcer monk? They’re just crazy enough to do it! If there is a long painful strike, look for this to be the ONLY watchable movie in 2008. Better yet, if you know anyone who is descended from the Marovingians, pray to them for a quick settlement so the writers can get back to work. I have a feeling this one will benefit from revisions.

-daniel k.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 4:01 am and is filed under General, Motion Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.