The movie column Deadline is reporting that Mark Romanek is the possible new director for the Sony Pictures big budget screen version of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Ron Howard, who directed both The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, has bowed out in favor of producing. No official word on whether Tom Hanks will return as symbologist Robert Langdon, but that is expected. Brown is penning the script for the film after writer Steven Knight left the project.Romanek is best known for 2002's One Hour Photo and the recent Never Let Me Go.
The film will be a high visibility project for Freemasonry, with much of it taking place in the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple (too early to know if they will actually shoot in the HOT, or create it on a soundstage as they did the Vatican in Angels & Demons). And in case you think these have been inconsequential films, The Da Vinci Code made $758 million worldwide in 2006, and A&D made $486 million — over a billion dollars combined.
No word on a possible release date yet.
What I am most interested to see is how they will portray Freemasonry on the big screen. Whether or not they will "Hollywoodize" us too much, and maybe portray us in a seedier light for more dramatic effect.
ReplyDeleteWhat is everyones opinion on this? Will it be good for Freemasonry, or bad, with such a large movie placing our fraternity right dead center of the spotlight. Too much attention and focus?
I wonder if it might be a good idea to have open houses etc to coincide with the release of the movie. I'll wager that we will have alot of people seeking information after its release onto the big screen.
Yes this will provide a great opportunity for the fraternity to capitalise on - lots of open days and relatively easy chances to get positive press copy out there.
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