Tom Hanks will play famed symbologist Robert Langdon in Columbia Pictures upcoming film adaptation based on Dan Browns best-selling thriller THE DA VINCI CODE, slated for release May 19, 2006. Ron Howard will direct from a script by Akiva Goldsman, who previously collaborated on Oscar-winner A BEAUTIFUL MIND. Brian Grazer and John Calley will produce. Presumably vfx, with lots of potential for virtual environments, would be handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks.
THE DA VINCI CODE will mark Hanks third collaboration with Howard and Grazer, having previously starred for Howard in the space drama APOLLO 13 and in his star-making role in the comedy SPLASH.
Columbia Pictures, part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, is a SonyPictures Ent. company. Sony Pictures Ent. (www.sonypictures.com) is a subsidiary of Sony Corp. of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corp.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
