NBC/Peacock Announces Cancellation of Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol'

by Christopher Hodapp

NBC's Peacock streaming network has announced that there will only be the single season of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol that has already aired. The 10-episode series aired between September and November 2021, and there are no plans for future episodes.

Based on Brown's 2009 blockbuster Masonic-themed novel, The Lost Symbol starred Ashley Zukerman as symbologist Robert Langdon, along with Valorie Curry (“Blair Witch”), Sumalee Montano (“10 Cloverfield Lane”), Rick Gonzalez (“Arrow”), Beau Knapp (“Seven Seconds”), and actor and comedian Eddie Izzard as Peter Solomon.

According to the announcement in Variety on Monday, "Peacock and producers believed that the series adaptation of the book told the complete story of the source material." The completed series will continue to be offered to subscribers on the Peacock streaming platform.

The creative team for the series made an early decision to modify much of the Masonic content of Brown's original novel and invent a super-secret level of Freemasons within the fraternity (called 'Leviathan') in order to free the show from having to stick to known facts, symbolism and practices of Masonry. And I was told a major consideration of the producers was their legal departments' advice to not show the square and compass in order to avoid any possibility of being sued for copyright or trademark infringement by the fraternity. (I'm only reporting it.) 

Apparently the Peacock advertising department never got that memo...

The so-called "Leviathan cross" depicted in the show is actually the alchemical symbol for sulphur (also for volcanic brimstone), and series creators invented the fictional group as a special collection of powerful, select, brainy, unseen Masonic masters who protect the really secret secrets to life, the universe and everything.

The Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction created an eleven-part YouTube series that acts as a Masonic viewers' guide to the Lost Symbol program. Hosted by Brother Maynard Edwards, ° KCCH, the multi-part program, Symbols & Secrets, explores and explains the symbols, terminology and accuracy of The Lost Symbol. As the program explains, this is NOT a Masonic symbol. 

Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' Streaming TV Series Premieres Sept. 16

by Christopher Hodapp

The second official trailer for the upcoming TV series, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol has been released. Episode 1 premieres on Thursday, September 16th on NBC/Universal's Peacock streaming platform, and requires a subscription. New episodes will appear every Thursday.

The series is based on Brown's Masonic-themed 2009 thriller The Lost Symbol and stars Ashley Zukerman as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.

By the way, you may be balking at the notion of paying for a $4.99/month subscription to the Peacock streaming channel just to see this one lone series. I know cable TV cord cutting has been the rage for many years now. But, IF you still are among the shrinking audience who still pays for a cable TV package, AND if your cable provider is Comcast/Xfinity, they are currently offering a free year's subscription to the Peacock service.

CLICK HERE for more information about how to activate the offer.

'National Treasure' Movie and TV Series Both On Track

by Christopher Hodapp

For over a year now, Disney has been floating the story that they are really and truly finally at work on a sequel to the 2004 box office blockbuster, National Treasure. In fact, the first announcement came within days of reports that Sony Pictures is developing Dan Brown's Masonic-themed novel, The Lost Symbol, into a pilot film in hopes of it becoming an ongoing TV series. 

Yesterday, Disney confirmed that super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer is not only preparing a third National Treasure movie with the original cast that follows the intrepid Gates family, but also a completely different story line starring an all-new cast as a continuing TV series for the Disney+ streaming service.

More info has been released in a story on the comicbook.com website:

Disney+ has given a 10-episode series order to a National Treasure TV series that will be exclusive to the streamer. The series will act as a reimagining of the franchise with a twenty-year-old Latina character named Jess Morales at the center of the story. Jess and her friends will set off on an adventure to uncover her mysterious family history and recover lost treasure, following in the footsteps of Nic Cage's Benjamin Franklin Gates.

 Original National Treasure producer Jerry Bruckheimer is working on the new series, along with original writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley. Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe) will be directing the new series.

 

This TV series will bring the National Treasure franchise to a new generation, but it isn't the only project in the works from the property. There is still a third National Treasure movie in the works. Writer Chris Bremner was brought on to pen the script early last year.

 

“We’re certainly working on one [National Treasure] for streaming and we’re working on one for the big screen," Bruckheimer explained to Collider during an interview in 2020. "Hopefully, they’ll both come together and we’ll bring you another National Treasure, but they’re both very active….The one for Disney+ is a much younger cast. It’s the same concept but a young cast. The one for theatrical would be the same cast.”

The Deadline website has a few more added details about the TV series:

The project, from the films’ producer Jerry Bruckheimer and original writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, is a reimagining of the National Treasure franchise. Written by the Wibberleys and to be directed by Mira Nair (Vanity Fair), the series explores the timely issues of identity, community, historical authorship and patriotism, told from the point of view of Jess Morales, a twenty-year-old DREAMer who, with her diverse group of friends, sets off on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover her mysterious family history and recover lost treasure.

Reimagining? Timely issues? Identity? DREAMer? This promises to be a barren source of amusement. This synopsis reads like it was created by an automated woke computer program specifically to appeal to the wokiary and strictly adhere to the dogma of wokishmentarianism. That's usually a pretty good indicator that we can look forward to being lectured to instead of entertained.

Call me crazy, but something tells me it just won't have the magical combination of elements that made the original film the surprise hit of 2004, and its 2007 sequel even more popular. Part of the success behind the two National Treasure movies was their apolitical treatment of American history and current politics. Both films presumed that audiences pretty uniformly admired the Founders, and shared at least a common enough knowledge of American history to enjoy the movies. Cage's character of Benjamin Franklin Gates was a man in love with, and obsessed by (and, incidentally, named after) the figures of the nation's past, and the movies deliberately steered clear of attempting to take political sides, fire off deliberately polarizing pot shots, or drag contemporary issues into what was simple swashbuckling, escapist entertainment. Sadly, this proposed story line has all the crowd-pleasing potential of the all-girl remake of Ghostbusters.

Anyhow, it goes on:

Jess Morales is taking the torch from Benjamin Gates, the National Treasure films’ protagonist played by Nicolas Cage.

The Wibberleys executive produce with Jerry Bruckheimer Television. ABC Signature is the studio.

Senior-level writers are expected to join the Wibberleys, whose TV credits include LA’s Finest. They have worked with Bruckheimer on several movies, including the first two National Treasure films and G-Force.

The development of the National Treasure series has been on parallel tracks with the long gestating trequel to Jon Turtletaub‘s movie franchise starring Cage, which brought in Chris Bremner as writer in January 2020.

At least the feature film sounds more like it's following in the footsteps of the two prior movies. But Bruckheimer and crew need to get in gear – it's been sixteen and a half years since Nic Cage found the Templar treasure hidden by the Founding Freemasons, and none of the actors, Bruckheimer or director Jon Turtletaub are getting any younger.

Meanwhile, as reported earlier this month, The Lost Symbol pilot has been snapped up by NBC's streaming service, Peacock. It will be the basis for a new, ongoing TV series called Langdon, about Brown's tweedy professor protagonist, Robert Langdon, fresh out of Harvard, and hunting historical, fine art clues and solving mysteries. 

In 2004, National Treasure cashed in on the Dan Brown mania swirling around his hotly anticipated Da Vinci Code sequel, and I've long suspected that the hugely popular Nic Cage movie hijacked some of Brown's story points. The release of The Lost Symbol ultimately didn't happen until 2009. It's sort of funny that these two streaming TV projects have once again managed to be in a race with each other all over again. We at least know that Masons are central to the Langdon story line. Apart from an oblique reference to Albert Pike in National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, only the first NT movie revolved around Masonic clues and story points. We'll have to wait and see if we make it into the threequel.

NBC's Streamer Peacock Orders 'Dan Brown's Langdon' As Regular Series

by Christopher Hodapp

PeacockTV, NBC's new subscription streaming TV service, has announced that they have ordered the TV pilot based on Dan Brown's Masonic-themed thriller, The Lost Symbol, to be picked up as a continuing series, to be entitled Dan Brown's Langdon.

The pilot was initially planned to air on the NBC broadcast network, but now the series will be a flagship show for the Peacock pay streaming service.

The story line of the novel has been shifted to occur before The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons. Ashley Zuckerman portrays symbologist Robert Langdon shortly after his graduation from Harvard (and much younger than Tom Hanks' version in three previous theatrical films of Brown's novels). Langdon must solve a twisted mystery to save his university mentor, Peter Solomon (played by comedian and actor, Eddie Izzard) and prevent a mysterious nemesis from unleashing terrible destruction on Washington, D.C.

Brown's hotly anticipated novel The Lost Symbol was released in 2009, and centered around many Masonic clues and landmarks in Washington, including the Scottish Rite SJ's House of the Temple headquarters. Masons everywhere enjoyed the novel and the public spotlight it brought to the fraternity, but were disappointed when Hollywood passed over it as a big-money picture to make Inferno instead.

Peacock issued the following press release on Friday:

Peacock has ordered the gripping drama thriller “Dan Brown’s Langdon” to series, based on the world-renowned author’s international bestselling novel “The Lost Symbol.”

“Dan Brown’s Langdon” is produced by CBS Studios, Imagine Television Studios and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie will serve as writers and executive producers for the series.

Dan Brown, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Samie Kim Falvey and Anna Culp also serve as executive producers.

The drama project was originally developed by NBC and was ordered to pilot last year by the network.

“The team was blown away by this pilot and its enormous potential to become a big, binge-worthy hit, and our new structure enables us to move it to Peacock and give it every opportunity to make that happen,” said Susan Rovner, Chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “Our ability to pick up a great show is no longer limited by the confines of a network schedule, giving us the freedom to say ‘yes’ to shows we love and then find them the perfect home across our portfolio.”

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Ron and Brian again on another Langdon project,” said Dan Brown. “We’ve all wanted to make ‘The Lost Symbol’ for some time now, and I’m grateful to CBS Studios, Imagine Television Studios, Universal Television and Peacock for joining forces to make this project a reality. Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie have written a phenomenally captivating script, and the casting and performances are pitch perfect.”

Based on Dan Brown’s international bestselling thriller “The Lost Symbol,” the series follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy.

The cast includes Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”), Valorie Curry (“Blair Witch”), Sumalee Montano (“10 Cloverfield Lane”), Rick Gonzalez (“Arrow”), Eddie Izzard (“Ocean’s Thirteen”) and Beau Knapp (“Seven Seconds”).

The Langdon pilot was actually shot principally in Toronto, Canada last year, but production was halted for some time because of the COVID pandemic shutdowns. The U.S. Capitol rotunda was recreated on a soundstage there, and I'm told there was Masonic input on the project.

Still no announcement of an air date.

Eddie Izzard Cast As Illus. Peter Solomon 33° in Upcoming 'Langdon' TV Series

by Christopher Hodapp

More casting news is trickling in about NBC's upcoming TV series Langdon, based on Dan Brown's Masonic-themed novel, The Lost Symbol. The Deadline website is reporting that actor/comedian Eddie Izzard (Six Minutes To Midnight) and Valorie Curry (The Tick) and are set to star opposite Ashley Zukerman's Robert Langdon.

Eddie Izzard has been cast as Peter Solomon, Director of the Smithsonian, billionaire philanthropist, and Robert Langdon's mentor at Harvard. Peter Solomon's character in the novel is also a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason and Masonic scholar. Frankly, this is a stroke of casting genius, as Peter Solomon (in the book, anyway) has a fine sense of humor, a thorough understanding of history, philosophy and theology, and it is through him that the best explanations and messages about Freemasonry ultimately unspool.

Eddie Izzard as 'Bertie,' Prince Albert Edward, son of Queen Victoria
in 'Victoria and Abdul'

If you only know the 58-year-old Izzard from his standup comedy material about being a transvestite and an atheist, you might be alarmed by this development. Frankly, his casting may give some Masons a case of the vapours. But if you've seen his dramatic performances (why do all comics want to be serious actors?), you know he's ideal for the part. He once said in an interview,

“I have noticed a reluctance in earlier years to know exactly where to start with research. Maybe it’s a laziness or lack of confidence about which way to go into it... The obvious thing that came into my head, or that I realized, was the better you researched it – the better you are into the character before you land on the set, the easier it’s going to be. You’re just going to be fully formed, I mean, obviously Daniel Day-Lewis does this to a huge extent, and that’s what I want to do, that’s the direction I want to head to, so that when I’m there, getting to the set, I know where I am, rather than a week into it, getting the hang of it."

The other announcement was that actress Valorie Curry will play Katherine Solomon, Peter Solomon's sister and the scientist conducting experiments on Noetics. You might know Curry as 'Dot Everest' in The Tick or Kelsey in Showtime's House of Lies.

The Deadline website is also reporting that NBC has firmly committed to actually start shooting the Langdon series later this year (the COVID pandemic shutdowns placed many shows slated for Fall in question).

Brown's The Lost Symbol novel — the sequel to The Da Vinci Code — was a 500+ page love letter to our fraternity, so I look forward to seeing how Hollywood treats us. I'm not dumb enough to think the fraternity will get an entirely fair treatment. In the most commonly used Masonic ritual in the U.S., we teach the lesson of Jacob's Ladder, and stress that Faith, Hope and Charity are its three principal rungs. 'Faith is lost in sight' - I have little faith that Hollywood can tell a Masonic story without screwing it up, based on having seen countless earlier examples. 'Hope ends in fruition' - so this project will hopefully not stink. But 'the greatest of these is Charity,' so I shall remain charitable until proved otherwise. 

For previous news about the Langdon series:

• New NBC TV Series Will Feature Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' At Last
• New Robert Langdon For NBC's 'Lost Symbol'-based TV Series
• Masons and the Media: 'Langdon' and 'National Treasure' Updates

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Masons and the Media: 'Langdon' and 'National Treasure' Updates

by Christopher Hodapp

It's almost like the heady days of 2004 all over again, with both Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code sequel The Lost Symbol AND National Treasure back in the media news. 

As reported over the last several months, NBC is adapting Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol as a TV series for the fall season (although heaven only knows how the COVID shutdown will affect production schedules). The six-year delay in the original book release helped to set off a flurry of Masonic-related books and TV documentaries in the mid-to late 2000s, and the novel turned out to be a 500+ page love letter to the fraternity. Masons everywhere hoped it would be made into a full-length, big-budget Tom Hanks feature after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, but were disappointed when Sony Pictures skipped it over to film Inferno instead. 

Now The Lost Symbol is being resurrected as a TV series instead, re-framing the story around a younger, freshly-graduated Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and set as a prequel to the first three films. 

The new series is entitled Langdon, and American-born Australian actor Ashley Zukerman (who recently played Nate Sofrelli on HBO's Succession) takes on the title role.

Producer Ron Howard's Imagine Television and NBC have brought in Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie to write the script for the pilot film. The two writing partners created ABC's The Crossing, and most recently served as consulting producers on Star Trek: Discovery and American Horror Story. Past credits also include the Scream TV series, Revenge, Scorpion, Criminal Minds and Netflix's new teen adventure drama Outer Banks.

The Primetimer.com website somehow obtained a copy of the Dworkin/Beattie synopsis of the pilot episode for Langdon and posted it on their website yesterday. It reads, in part:

We open on shots of bazaars, mosques and ancient ruins. We're in Turkey, where we ultimately settle on the Patnos prison, an aged facilty surrounded by the high moutains of what used to be Armenia. In the yard, we focus on a chain with a guard pulling at one end, and an American inmate on the other. Meet ZACHARY SOLOMON (25), skinny, dirty and scared. A second guard approaches with a thin wooden cane. He smashes it hard on Zachary's feet. Other inmates are watching the spectacle, apparently learning a lesson. Zachary has tried to escape. As the camera pans over the cell windows, we push in through the bars of one, where an inmate seems to be in some sort of trance, not bothered by the sounds of despair outside. As the camera rises, it's revealed that he's seated upon a symbol drawn in ash on the floor. It's a TRISKELION. Then we hear ROBERT LANGDON (33) in voice over.

He's in Harvard, teaching. He's a bit cocky, but his students seem to love him. His class is about symbolism, as all sorts of symbols of the past and present appear on a screen behind him. He explains how what was relevant then is revelant now, and how people on the internet sometimes use these symbols to push an agenda, creating fake news and conspiracy theories. He says we have a responsibilty to distinguish fact from fiction. Later that day, Langdon is in a bar with a fellow professor, STAN. His phone vibrates with a text from PETER SOLOMON (50) who asks him to call him back ASAP. Peter is the director of the Smithsonian, and Langdon's mentor. Outside, he makes the call, and it's Peter's assistant who answers. He says Peter needs Langdon's help in D.C. right now.

The next day, as he settles into Peter's private jet, Langdon calls KATHERINE SOLOMON, Peter's sister. She's in Cambodia, in a Buddhist Temple. She's surprised by the call and doesn"t know anything about what's happening with her brother. What Langdon really wants to know is if she's available for dinner. There's history here. But she can't, she's buried in an important project. Once in Washington D.C., Langdon has a sweet memory that's shared with us in flashback. It's three years earlier and he's at Princeton, defending his thesis to a room full of faculty heads, including Peter. As Langdon arrives at the Capitol Building, he quickly realizes the hall where a gala is supposed to be happening is empty. That's where he was supposed to meet Peter. A JANITOR confirms no such event was scheduled that day. Langdon reaches to his phone to call Peter and it's his assistant's voice again on the other end of the line. But his tone is different now. Turns out it's not his assistant, it's someone who calls himself MAL'AKH. He tells him Peter is not here, he's in Araf, which means Purgatory.

Not far from Langdon, a family of visitors are wandering. One child seems to be bored... until he stumbles upon a HAND. His mom's face fills with terror as she sees it too. Meanwhile, Mal'akh tells Langdon he has to find an ancient portal in the city and unlock it. Only then Peter will returned from the in-between realm. Click. The line goes dead. Langdon wonders if it's a joke. He takes notice of a chaotic crowd that has gathered around what is now fully revealed to us as a severed hand propped up on a wooden base, with three fingers curled down and index finger pointing up. There are tattoos on the fingertips, and a ring on the middle-finger. Langdon knows exactly what it means...

If you read the novel, you can already see it's sticking fairly close to the source, but you can expect more deviations as it progresses. The book had some major problematic visual plot points that won't transfer well to film, but it seems that the core of the story will be the same. If so, chances are pretty good that the Masons will still come off well. Let's hope so. NBC and producers need to bear in mind that the guaranteed worldwide Masonic audience (and swath of potential cheerleaders) for Langdon runs into the millions. The Scottish Rite NMJ's recent in-depth surveys show that most of the population in the U.S. has a very positive image of the Masons. It would be foolish to disappoint us or treat us badly onscreen in order to satisfy the juvenile conspiracy theory/world takeover/Masons are Satanic/alien abduction crowd. Dan Brown didn't go that way, so let's hope NBC doesn't, either.

No word yet as to whether producers have contacted the Scottish Rite SJ's House of the Temple to ask where to park the grip trucks, catering vans and honey wagons. While everyone waits, I'll shamelessly hurl out a reminder that I wrote an entire Masonic guidebook to The Lost Symbol back in 2009 when the novel was released. Check out Deciphering the Lost Symbol.

*   *   *  

Meanwhile, as reported here last November, Jerry Bruckheimer's production company is hard at work on new National Treasure projects for the Mouse House. That's plural now.
 
The first two National Treasure movies, premiering in 2004 and 2007, starred Nicolas Cage as historian and treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates and made a surprisingly tidy fortune for Disney. According to another piece on the Primetimer.com website, not only is a third NT film now in the works, but so is a separate Disney+ streaming TV series with a different cast. 

"We’re certainly working on one (National Treasure) for streaming and we’re working on one for the big screen," says Bruckheimer. "Hopefully, they’ll both come together and we’ll bring you another National Treasure, but they’re both very active….The one for Disney+ is a much younger cast. It’s the same concept but a young cast. The one for theatrical would be the same cast.”

Take all that for what it's worth, which sounds more like ballyhoo and hot air than definite deals. No casts, no dates, no scripts. Not yet, anyway. But if either or both do come off, the  first NT film was noteworthy for its day by being among the first to treat the Masons as the good guys instead of bald-headed, cat-stroking super-villains. It would be nice if they picked up that thread again.

In any case, it sounds like Hollywood is interested in Freemasons again, for a little while anyway. Heck - the History Channel has even been re-running Book of Secrets from 2012 with Alice and me yakking about the Freemasons for the past month. 

We live forever youthful in reruns.

All of this new bit of Masonic-related showbiz development doesn't happen in a vacuum. These stories started popping up last summer in the wake of success of AMC's Lodge 49 and the Hulu airing of the Sky TV series Inside the Freemasons. One thing Hollywood is filled with are band wagoneers who are terrified to go first with a new idea, but fall all over themselves in a rush to capitalize on territory someone else staked out ahead of them. The announcement of the Langdon project in late 2018 directly led to a sudden interest in another National Treasure project. That makes the irony of the connection between these two projects come full circle just as it did in 2004, and once again set up another competition to see who gets their 'Masonic' project onscreen first.

Meanwhile, if Knights Templars are your thing, History's planned third season of Knightfall  has just been axed as of yesterday. The last episode of season two aired nearly a year ago, and the viewership of 625,000 was down almost 50% from the first season, even with Mark Hamill on board. Knightfall was History‘s lowest-rated series, so you York Rite guys just weren't loyal enough I guess. 

Shoulda made them all Masons and put them in Rosslyn Chapel...

New Robert Langdon For NBC's 'Lost Symbol'-based TV Series

Media websites are reporting that Australian-American actor Ashley Zukerman has been cast as author Dan Brown's globe-hopping symbologist Robert Langdon in NBC's upcoming series, Langdon. The series will be based on Brown's The Da Vinci Code sequel, 2009's The Lost Symbol, which revolves around the Freemasons and Masonic sites across Washington, D.C.

Ashley Zukerman

It's never been very often that the Masons have been uniformly portrayed as the virtuous good guys and central characters to high-visibility film or TV projects, so this is good news.

Zukerman's Robert Langdon will be a younger version of
Tom Hank's character in the motion picture chronology

The NBC series is being treated as a sort of prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno, the previous big-budget movies made with Tom Hanks in the part. Zukerman's Robert Langdon will be younger than Hanks', and the plot line of the book will be slightly shifted so that the character of Peter Solomon will more clearly be Langdon's more recent mentor from his early Harvard days. 

Ashley Zukerman most recently appeared in the HBO series Succession, but he's not exactly a household name like Hanks. That's probably a good thing for such a high-visibility role like Robert Langdon.

Scottish Rite SJ's House of the Temple in Washington

It's unknown at this point whether the series will actually be shot in Washington (a frustratingly complex city to film in logistically), or even if the actual Masonic sites mentioned in the book will be used for the production. The Scottish Rite SJ's distinctive headquarters, the House of the Temple, plays an important part in the original novel, but no one knows whether it will be retained in the series, changed to a different (and possibly fictional) location, or re-created in whole or in part via cgi effects (which would have been required anyway due to plot action). 

It'll be hard to improve on the HOT's real-life Temple room, but I'm sure Hollywood will want to up the ante on spookiness. Still way too early to tell.

Nevertheless, be aware that The Lost Symbol source material for Langdon features Freemasons, Masonic symbolism and philosophy all the way through, including a quite philosophical ending. Let's hope at least some of that survives in this upcoming TV treatment. And it would be nice for everyone involved—including us— if this turns out to be a hit.

The approved script for the Langdon show has been written by The Crossing creators Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, and rumor has it that Dan Brown recommended them for the project. They've been named as the show's executive producers - they also co-created/executive produced Matador, and served as consulting producers on Star Trek: Discovery and American Horror Story. 

No word yet on who plays kindly old Masonic sage Peter Solomon - hopefully a cross between Art de Hoyos and Brent Morris. Maybe with a curmudgeonly touch of Rex Hutchens thrown in. 

I'll be happy to forward my headshot to producers. 

Just sayin'.

     

(While you wait, I'd like to recommend my books Solomon's Builders and Deciphering The Lost Symbol so you can bone up on the REAL Masonic background and history of Washington D.C.)

Screen Versions of 'Lost Symbol' and 'National Treasure 3' Advancing

Two high-profile, big money media projects of interest to Freemasons are inching closer to reality - and knowing Hollywood, they are spurring each other on in a race to see who gets in front of audience eyeballs first.

First up, NBC has now officially authorized and ordered a pilot film of Langdon, a new TV series initially based on Dan Brown's Masonic-themed 2009 mystery adventure novel The Lost Symbol. I reported this last June, but this announcement by NBC and Imagine Entertainment means this project is no longer just a rumor and is slated for the 2020 production season. So it's real as of now.

The potential TV series is being re-drafted as a prequel to Brown's earlier novels, Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, and will deal with the younger years of Harvard "symbologist" and globe-hopping mystery solver Robert Langdon. The novel revolved around the kidnapping of Langdon's early mentor, Peter Solomon, and is something of a Masonic landmark tour of Washington D.C., culminating in the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple.  

Due to several troublesome plot points in the story (pesky stuff like a major portion of the action taking place in total darkness), Sony Pictures and Imagine Entertainment skipped making The Lost Symbol into a big-budget feature film a decade ago, which disappointed Masons everywhere. At least five writers previously attempted to wrestle The Lost Symbol into a feature script over a six year period after it came out - including Brown himself - before Sony and Imagine gave up and instead made his NEXT novel, Inferno, into the third Langdon movie with Tom Hanks. 

No cast has been announced yet. For this new TV series, Hanks won't appear (with his bad haircut), and a new actor will play this younger version of the Robert Langdon brainbox character. 

According to the Deadline website, the approved script for the proposed Langdon pilot has been written by The Crossing creators Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, and rumor has it that Dan Brown recommended them for the project. They've been named as the show's executive producers - they also co-created/executive produced Matador, and served as consulting producers on Star Trek: Discovery and American Horror Story. 

(While you wait, I'd like to recommend my books Solomon's Builders and Deciphering The Lost Symbol so you can bone up on the REAL Masonic background and history of Washington D.C.)

Meanwhile, over at the House of Mouse more rumors keep being circulated about Disney developing National Treasure 3 as either a big-budget movie release, or as a streaming Disney+ offering. This was first being touted back in November, but now screenwriter Chris Bremmer, who wrote the script for the current Will Smith/Martin Lawrence picture Bad Boys For Life, has confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that he's been tapped by producer Jerry Bruckheimer to pen a National Treasure 3 script. That's all anyone is saying publicly, and nobody knows if stars Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, and Helen Mirren will be back, or if this will center on a new set of characters. It's been a dozen years since the second very successful NT movie came out, and that cast isn't getting any younger (although with the creepy new de-aging SFX software, anything is now possible). 

Bremmer's script for the new Bad Boys sequel is being credited with successfully resurrecting that 25 year-old franchise with its aging stars for Bruckheimer, so we may find out what Benjamin Gates saw on page 47 of the President's Book of Secrets after all. With luck, there will be some Masons lurking in the edges of the story again.

The original National Treasure with its Masonic Founding Fathers and buried Templar treasure was deviously designed in 2004 by Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney to capitalize on Dan Brown mania while the world awaited his promised sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which turned out to be The Lost Symbol. Bear in mind that Hollywood is a fickle place and, to quote Bart Simpson (or maybe George Burns), show business is a horrible bitch goddess. One or both of these projects could disappear or actually make it to the light of a flickering screen. I'm guessing some executive saw viewership figures on both Lodge 49 and the Sky TV five part series about the United Grand Lodge of England that Hulu aired last Fall and decided, "These Freemason guys are hot again. Call somebody. Get somebody. And get me somebody while I'm waiting." So maybe this is a race between these two projects, and maybe it isn't. But with any luck, we Masons may soon be back on the public radar screens for a little while again.

Author Dan Brown Addresses the Scottish Rite

Author Dan Brown was invited to speak at the House of the Temple in Washington D.C. during the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction's biennial meeting over the weekend. He posted this photo on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

For those of you who were hiding under a rock in the early 2000s (or weren't born yet - a chilling thought), Brown's art- symbolism- and history-laden thrillers The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons were worldwide publishing phenomenons that motivated untold throngs of readers to discover the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, the Illuminati, and a bushel of other esoteric topics. Almost overnight, Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel was stuffed to the gills with tourists all asking where the basement was. Tour busses began marauding through the little French village of Rennes Le Chateau. And internet enquiries started to tumble in to Masonic lodges and grand lodge offices.

The DaVinci Code soon became the sixth most popular book in the history of the English language, and Brown's publisher teased its Masonic-themed sequel for another five years. Whether it was marketing savvy or writer's block, the delay in publishing The Lost Symbol caused an avalanche of new books, TV programs and films (like the two National Treasures) to flood the marketplace with new, mostly positive material about the Masons.

Keeping all of that in mind, it made perfect sense for the Scottish Rite to invite Mr. Brown to speak at this gathering, and in this particular place. After all of the hype and waiting, it turned out that The Lost Symbol was a 509-page love letter to our fraternity. 

Its cover featured the double-headed eagle of the Scottish Rite and its motto, Ordo ab Chao. Its original hardback release date was very deliberately 9/15/09, which add up to the number 33. And the thriller's climax unfolded in the House of the Temple itself. 

Since someone invariably asks whenever Dan Brown gets mentioned, to my knowledge he is not, and never has been, a Freemason. But even as a non-Mason, he has achieved pop culture pinup boy status with Brethren for managing to stoke unparalleled interest in all things Masonic.

While big, bloated movies with Tom Hanks were made from both The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons, Sony Pictures skipped over The Lost Symbol and adapted Brown's NEXT novel, Inferno, instead. Masons collectively wept. For a long while it seemed that Freemasons just weren't interesting to Hollywood anymore. Our fleeting flareup in the pop culture sunlight just as quickly extinguished. 

Not as fast as Dexy's Midnight Runners did, but still it was depressing.

But back in June it was suddenly reported here that NBC has given a production commitment to Langdon, a new TV drama based on The Lost Symbol and revolving around Brown's recurring symbologist character, Robert Langdon. 

We shall see. 

While you're waiting, I have this book called Deciphering The Lost Symbol...

New NBC TV Series Will Feature Dan Brown's 'The Lost Symbol' At Last

Before Dan Brown's Masonic thriller The Lost Symbol was released in 2009, public and mercenary interest in the unpublished novel and all things Freemasonry were as close to a fever pitch as anything could get in the shrinking publishing and pop culture world. Brown himself had let the cat out of the bag five years ahead of schedule by letting it be known he was going to write about the Freemasons in Washington, D.C. as the sequel to the sixth most popular book in the English language - The Da Vinci Code. After  years worth of delays on Brown's part, the marketplace and the airwaves were flooded with Masonic related books, TV shows, and even National Treasure, all trying to cash in on Dan Brown mania. 

And Freemasonry itself was a big beneficiary of all of the renewed attention. 

If you heard me speak starting about a dozen years ago, you might recall that I told Masonic audiences everywhere that our membership problems would soon be over. The Lost Symbol and its inevitable big bloated Robert Langdon movie with Tom Hanks were going to be so popular that floods of eager petitioners would be pounding on the doors and taking battering rams to our West Gates. Guys would be handing over their pants in such huge numbers we'd all have to build new closets. Lines for new degree conferrals were going to be longer than trying to get into a Miley Cyrus concert. Heck, grand lodges were going to have to rent NFL domed football stadiums for all of those one-day classes packed with Lost Symbol devotees who suddenly decided that Freemasonry was for them. 

Yeah, well, didn't happen.

After The Lost Symbol's release, my own book, Deciphering The Lost Symbol, was designed as a Masonic guidebook to help Masons make sense of what was true or imaginary regarding the fraternity in Brown's fanciful chase across Washington and its Masonic landmarks. But while the new novel was decent enough, it didn't capture the public imagination the way Brown's two prior ones had - The Da Vinci Code, and Angels & Demons. 

As much as we like to think we're an important audience, Masons who buy books and read them are a minuscule sparrow fart in the great pop culture demographic these days. But even before the novel's release, it was pre-determined that a movie would soon be made of it. 

While Freemasons certainly salivated over the potential of two hours of big screen Masonic good guys and the House of the Temple onscreen for the final, inevitable big showdown, the reading public had the same sort of reaction to the book itself that Star Trek fans had for the big budget flopbuster Star Trek: The Motion Picture back in 1979. "Um, yeah, it's really good," was the sort of tepid response. And movie producers were pretty underwhelmed.

Worse, after four different screenplay writers and even Brown himself attempted to make a filmable script out of it (since 20% of the novel takes place in pitch darkness), Ron Howard's production team decided to leapfrog The Lost Symbol and went for Brown's NEXT novel, Inferno. The Lost Symbol became, well, lost.

Well, it's back.

The Deadline website is reporting that NBC has just given a production commitment to Langdon, a TV drama based on Dan Brown’s Masonic novel The Lost Symbol, from Daniel Cerone (Motive, Constantine), Imagine Television Studios (the TV division of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment), CBS TV Studios, and Universal Television. So, we might at least start checking the rental rates on high school stadiums, just in case...

From the story:

Written and executive produced by Cerone, Langdon follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who finds himself pulled into a series of deadly puzzles when his mentor is kidnapped. The CIA forces him onto a task force where he uncovers a chilling conspiracy.

Brown executive produces with Imagine TV Studios’ Grazer, Howard, Francie Calfo, Samie Falvey and Anna Culp. Imagine TV Studios, CBS TV Studios and Universal TV co-produce.

The Last Symbol is the third Brown novel featuring the character of Langdon, following Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, and is set after the events of The Da Vinci Code.

The Langdon TV series is a natural extension to the Robert Langdon universe Imagine Entertainment had built on the feature side at Columbia Pictures with three movies produced by the company and directed by principal Ron Howard, which starred Tom Hanks as Langdon: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno, based on the fourth book in the series. The company also had developed a movie adaptation of The Lost Symbol at Sony as a follow-up to Angels & Demons before the studio went with Inferno instead.

[snip]

The Langdon TV series is a natural extension to the Robert Langdon universe Imagine Entertainment had built on the feature side at Columbia Pictures with three movies produced by the company and directed by principal Ron Howard, which starred Tom Hanks as Langdon: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno, based on the fourth book in the series. The company also had developed a movie adaptation of The Lost Symbol at Sony as a follow-up to Angels & Demons before the studio went with Inferno instead.

Just like the Angels & Demons movie took place after the events in The Da Vinci Code, opposite to the chronological order in the books, Langdon has been conceived as a prequel, focusing on a younger Robert Langdon to change the timeline in the novels. Imagine TV set the project at CBS TV Studios through the companies’ first-look deal. The series had been in development at the studio at least since last September.

No time frame given. Looks like Tom Hanks is out, as is his odd haircut, and it'll be a younger Langdon symbologist on the trail. And plenty of these type of early announcements go nowhere - this has actually been underway for nine months. But you never know. 

My guess is this was suddenly resurrected as a TV project based on high ratings from Lodge 49 and the Sky TV UGLE five parter that Hulu aired last Fall.

NBC Exec: "These Freemason guys are hot again. Call somebody. Get somebody. And get me somebody while I'm waiting."

You might want to start renovating that closet.