‘Angels & Demons’ production postponed by strike
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The Hollywood writers strike has claimed its highest-profile movie to date: Columbia Pictures late today announced that with the strike nearing its third week, it is postponing production of ‘Angels & Demons,’ the prequel to blockbuster ‘The Da Vinci Code.’
The decision comes as the Writers Guild of America continues to picket outside Hollywood studios and networks in a labor impasse that shows no signs of being resolved soon.
In late October, as the strike deadline approached, Oscar-winning writer-producer Akiva Goldsman was hurrying to complete the latest draft of ‘Angels & Demons.’ He told The Times: ‘It’s pencil down until midnight on Halloween,’ adding, ‘It’s unavoidably intensely stressful, but it’s the way of the world right now.’
Today, Columbia released a statement that called the screenplay ‘very strong’ but added: ‘we do not believe it is the fully-realized production draft required of this ambitious project.’ Filming was to have begun in February.
The studio said there is no new start date, but it has shifted its plans to release the film in 2008 to a tentative release date of May 15, 2009. ‘We do not expect any other film on our 2008 slate to be affected.’
Columbia’s 2008 lineup includes ‘Bond 22,’ ‘Hancock’ starring Will Smith, the Will Ferrell comedy ‘Step Brothers,’ the Adam Sandler comedy ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,’ Seth Rogen’s ‘Pineapple Express,’ ‘The International’ starring Clive Owen and a number of other films like ‘Vantage Point’ and ‘The Other Boelyn Sister.’
Directed by Ron Howard, and based on the bestseller by novelist Dan Brown, ‘Angels & Demons’ will again star Tom Hanks, who reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who tries to hunt down a killer and prevent an attack on the Vatican.
--Robert W. Welkos