Sony has announced a release date for author Dan Brown’s book-to-film adaptation, Inferno, which will again star Tom Hanks and be directed by Ron Howard.
The book was an incredible phenomenon, which lead to the film adaptation bringing in a worldwide total of $758 million dollars despite somewhat mixed reviews.
The prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, was released in 2000 and was adapted to film nine years later in 2009, pulling in a more tame $485 million. On a budget of $150 million, the studio considered it a fairly major success.
What’s interesting is that the next film that Hanks and Howard will be working on is not the third book in Dan Brown’s catalog. Inferno is actually a more recent novel written by the author, as Sony has decided to skip the third installment, The Lost Symbol.
Inferno was released just this past May, so we imagine Sony is planning on taking advantage of the recent popularity of Dan Brown’s latest work. Brown’s readers have always been fairly weary of the film adaptations, but the audience is certainly still present.
Sony has set Inferno’s release date for December 18, 2015. Tom Hanks will reprise his role as Robert Langdon, and award-winning director, Ron Howard, will again take the reigns of what has been a very profitable book-to-film franchise.
We’re uncertain why the previous book, The Lost Symbol was skipped as the films have been fairly popular with audiences and Brown fans.
Inferno again follows religious iconology and symbology professor, Robert Langdon, as he attempts to solve another puzzle. Inferno is based around Langdon’s attempt to decipher the first part of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy.
Angels and Demons screenwriter, David Koepp, will be returning for the latest film, and Deadline reports that after Inferno, the studio plans to come back to The Lost Symbol.