Angels & Demons, Brought to You by Da Vinci

"The Da Vinci Code" officially became this summer's biggest box office sensation yet when it opened on Friday and finished its first weekend with a $77 million domestic gross and the second-highest opening gross of all time worldwide. So what's next? Well, there just so happens to be Dan Brown's first bestseller in the same religious thriller genre as "Da Vinci" and with the same main character even, Professor Robert Langdon. The screenwriter who brought "Da Vinci" to the big screen has been charged with penning an adaptation of Brown's "Angels & Demons."

"Angels & Demons" introduced the character that Tom Hanks plays in the high-hype, low-review Ron Howard film based on the popular and controversial novel. But, reports are that Hanks and Howard have not yet signed on for this new project. In light of "Da Vinci" receiving much criticism from the religious community as well as theatergoers but doing extraordinarily well in box office numbers by all accounts, the Oscar-winning star and the Oscar-winning director will have the first choice of reassuming their respective roles, and the jobs will be up for grabs should they turn down the offer.

Much like "Da Vinci," the story takes Langdon through a murder investigation that leads him into conspiracies surrounding the religious world as plotted by an ancient and clandestine group, this time the Illuminati, and this time the target is the Vatican itself. Brown is very good at this formula as "Da Vinci" proved as a book and is now a testament to as a movie, but will the same masses turn out for another tale fitting the mold being cast by the success of "The Da Vinci Code" as a sophisticated summer flick? In at least part, it will surely depend on the return of Hanks and Howard, because they made "Da Vinci" a worthwhile watch. Now it may be up to them to satisfy this new demand Sony seeks to meet for Brown's brand of provocative religious writing. Be sure and read our Da Vinci Code reviews and write your own