The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Ron Howard returns to direct the film, which is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and John Calley. The screenplay is by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman.

What terrifying discovery would make the Vatican turn to Robert Langdon, the man who cracked history’s most controversial code? When Langdon finds evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati – the most powerful underground organization in history – he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the Illuminati’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. Upon learning that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, Langdon is recruited to travel to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow the 400-year-old Path of Illumination that marks the Vatican's only hope for survival.

Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer / John Calley production, Angels & Demons. The film stars Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan SkarsgÂrd, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Directed by Ron Howard. Screenplay by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman. Produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and John Calley. Based upon the novel by Dan Brown. Executive producers are Todd Hallowell and Dan Brown. Director of Photography is Salvatore Totino, ASC. Production Designer is Allan Cameron. Film Editors are Dan Hanley, A.C.E. and Mike Hill, A.C.E. Visual Effects Supervisor is Angus Bickerton. Costume Designer is Daniel Orlandi. Associate Producers are Kathleen McGill, Louisa Velis and William M. Connor. Music by Hans Zimmer. Music Supervision by Bob Badami.

Angels & Demons has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on May 15, 2009.

Angels & Demons begins with the death of a Pope and the ancient ritual of Conclave, the process by which the College of Cardinals elects a new Holy Father. Among the Cardinals are the preferiti, the Cardinals deemed most likely to be elected Pope. The process is famous for being shrouded in secrecy, with the Cardinals secluded until their important work is completed. The only communication with the outside world comes in the form of smoke released from the Sistine Chapel. Dark smoke indicates that a two-thirds majority vote has not occurred, and white smoke (and, recently, bells) indicate that a two-thirds majority has been reached and a new Pope has been elected.

The Camerlengo has very specific duties within the Vatican. It is he who certifies the death of the Pope and destroys the Pope’s ring with his official seal, also known as the Ring of the Fisherman. Until the election of a new Pope, the Camerlengo becomes the acting head of state of Vatican City.

The Swiss Guard has protected the Pope and the College of Cardinals within the Vatican’s walls since January 22, 1506. They are famous for seeing their positions not as a job but as a calling. To be recruited into the Swiss Guard, one must be a single Catholic male, between the age of 19 and 30, at least 5-feet-8-inches tall, a high-school graduate and a graduate of basic training in the Swiss military, and a citizen of Switzerland.

The general police duties of Vatican City are performed by the Gendarmarie. They handle public order, traffic control… and kidnapping and murder investigations, among other duties.

In Angels & Demons, these groups and Vatican officials are all forced into action when the Illuminati kidnap the preferiti and threaten to kill one each hour, culminating in a bomb at the Vatican. The “official” story behind the real-life Illuminati is that the secret society was founded in Bavaria in 1776, with as many as 2,000 “freethinkers” reaching into the highest levels of art, science and government becoming members before the group officially disbanded at the end of the 1700s.

However, some believe that the secret society’s roots are even older – that the Illuminati have existed since the 1500s, born out of concern over the Church’s conflicts with prominent scientists at that time. In the story of Angels & Demons, these Illuminati or “Enlightened Ones” were driven underground and disappeared more than 100 years ago, during which time the group became fervently anti-Vatican, choosing instead to “worship” the four elements of nature – earth, air, fire, and water. That is what sets the stage for the exciting story that unfolds in the film.

There are some in real life who say that the Illuminati still exist – and many articles, videos and other stories about them abound on the Internet today. Among the theories posted on the web are stories that suggest the Illuminati control world events, hold high and powerful offices, and are creating a New World Order to replace individual governments with an autonomous world government by the “enlightened.”

After becoming immersed in an adventure that pitted him against the Catholic Church and two thousand years of sacred religious history, Robert Langdon is back in Angels & Demons – and this time finds himself in the heart of the Vatican, attempting to save the Church from one of its oldest enemies: the Illuminati.

“Langdon enters into Angels & Demons with an icy relationship vis-‡-vis the Vatican because of the events of The Da Vinci Code,” says Tom Hanks, who reprises his role as the formidable Professor Langdon. “He has a great knowledge of the church’s rituals and history but he is not necessarily a welcome person. Essentially, there is a grab for power at the Vatican in the guise of the hijacking of the papal election and, in spite of his history with the church, Langdon is called in to try to prevent it.”

“The Vatican is under attack at its most vulnerable moment,” say director Ron Howard, who returns to the world of Dan Brown after directing the worldwide phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, which in 2006 took in more than $750 million worldwide. “The Vatican is going through conclave, the time when Cardinals elect a new Pope. When they are under the threat of murder and a ticking time bomb, they call upon Robert Langdon, the only one who has the expertise and ability to cut through the mystery, understand the symbols, and try to avert this disaster. He is not the man the Vatican trusts – he is the man the Vatican needs.”

In Angels & Demons, Langdon attempts to thwart the Illuminati – a centuries-old underground organization – and their plans to wreak havoc on the Vatican. For Howard, that idea made for a perfect villain and a worthy antagonist for Robert Langdon. “When I read Angels & Demons, I was really engrossed by the idea of the Illuminati,” says Howard. “This secret society, said to include people like Galileo and Bernini. What happened to them? Were they really crushed? Did they really leave us? There are those who believe that the Illuminati have survived as an organization and are with us in secret today, influencing our everyday lives, government policy decisions, and corporate strategies.”

“In our story, the Illuminati return for an act of revenge reaching back four hundred years,” says producer Brian Grazer. “The Illuminati have kidnapped four Cardinals – the favorites to become the new Pope – and threaten to destroy the Vatican and Vatican City. Vatican authorities call upon Robert Langdon – an old foe, in their minds – to help them in this moment of crisis. Only Langdon can decipher the mysterious Illuminati codes, tied to the ancient symbols of earth, air, fire, and water.”

“What’s so great about a Robert Langdon adventure is that it stimulates so much curiosity and research,” Howard continues. “You read the book or see the movie, then you go to the library or on the internet – you want to understand Bernini, Galileo, their relationships with the Vatican, with the art world, with science, and the mystery of the Illuminati. Whether you believe it or not, it’s fascinating stuff, and in Dan Brown’s fertile imagination, it leads to a spellbinding set of clues and a great mystery.”

Producer John Calley adds, “I was fortunate to have discovered Dan's books just before the rest of America got their hands on The Da Vinci Code and it became a phenomenon. I think what he's created in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons is a franchise for our times. Both books are fast-paced thrillers with a dynamic, ingenious hero at the center. It's no wonder that Dan has achieved such astounding success and we look forward to his next Robert Langdon thriller with great anticipation.”

For Howard, those are the very reasons that made returning to direct Angels & Demons such an easy choice. “There’s something unique about what Dan has created in this Robert Langdon character,” he says. “It’s incredibly original, thought-provoking, and, on a cinematic level, irresistible.”

Angels & Demons marks the first time Howard has ever returned to a character a second time around. “I never wanted to do that, because I’m always interested in trying to create new territory,” says Howard. “And Angels & Demons does that – even though Robert Langdon is again at the center, the film is so different from The Da Vinci Code and allows me to exercise a whole new set of cinematic muscles. Angels & Demons requires a different rhythm, another tempo, a different kind of drive. It is, literally, a ticking-time-bomb thriller, couched in a completely original mystery. Those two demands lead me as a director to stage this movie is a completely different way from The Da Vinci Code.”

Of course, Howard had another reason for wanting to return to Angels & Demons – the chance to team with Tom Hanks for the fourth time. “I love working with Tom, and really like what he’s doing with Robert Langdon,” says Howard. “The fit between the actor and the role gets deeper and stronger as it goes. Tom’s intellect, curiosity, and sense of humor blend so beautifully with Robert Langdon’s that he creates a deeper, richer, more interesting character to watch.”

Hanks says that Langdon’s impressive and arcane intellect are satisfying and stimulating to play and a big part of the project’s appeal. †“It’s challenging to play someone who is an expert in this very obscure field. †He makes connections that nobody else can see; one symbol can represent different points of view that make sense to only him. ††When we worked in Rome near places of great antiquity, I was fascinated to learn how the history of the site, what the original thought was in the building, what was going on in Rome at the time? †Who paid for it? When and why have things been added to it? Robert Langdon sees history in layers. †He takes in data, collects conflicting opinions, then matches them with differing interpretations, trying to understand why humans came up with these symbols in the first place.”

Hanks elaborates, saying that Robert Langdon taps into the primal fantasy of solving great mysteries. “If you’re smart enough to see the trail, smart enough to follow it, and wise enough to put together all the hidden clues, you just might bust open the conspiracy. And you only have so much time. †Who doesn’t love that?”

Hanks was also gratified to re-team with director Ron Howard. †Angels & Demons marks their fourth collaboration, the most recent being The Da Vinci Code. “Nothing fazes Ron,” says Hanks. “Certainly not shooting in front of the Pantheon in Rome with hundreds of tourists. He found small back alleys for scenes in the afternoons when it was hot and the crowds were intense but was so focused that he hardly knew they were there. Whenever he faces a challenging shot, he just figures out a way to do it and exudes confidence. Ron has created an impressive body of work and continues to make increasingly complicated, dense films – and he makes it all look easy. He’s more fearless now as a filmmaker, taking greater risks than he did when there was much less at stake. His will, his desire to open the way he makes movies makes demands of us all.”

Surrounding Hanks are some of the world’s best actors and brightest stars. According to Brian Grazer, attracting an international cast was one of the filmmakers’ highest priorities. “The international cast enhances the scope of the film,” says Grazer. “It becomes accessible in every country of the world. In addition, with the rich material and the chance to work with Tom, it’s an appealing film for an actor. We approached the best actors that made sense artistically for the film, and in each case, got our first choice.”

“The cast brought kinetic energy,” says Hanks. “It’s the sincerity Ewan McGregor brings to the Camerlengo, Stellan SkarsgÂrd as the scary bull at the head of the Swiss Guard, and Armin Mueller-Stahl embodying the morals of †the benevolent and knowing Cardinal. Ayelet Zurer wouldn’t deliver a line of dialog until she knew the science behind it. Everyone worked at the same high expectations, with the same dedication, which made it an intense film making experience.”

Throughout this adventure, Langdon is joined in his quest by the CERN-based Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra, played by Ayelet Zurer.

CERN (Conseil EuropÈen pour la Recherche NuclÈaire or European Council for Nuclear Research) is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. Situated in Switzerland, CERN initiated the operation of its Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle accelerator, during production. The experiments resulting from the LHC are set to change our view of the Universe we live in; they will investigate the reason for nature’s preference for matter over antimatter, and they will probe matter as it existed at the very beginning of time. In Angels & Demons, Vetra’s work at CERN surrounds a small canister of antimatter that is stolen, and becomes the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, threatening the Vatican and, indeed, the very foundations of the Catholic Church.

Zurer prepared for her role not only by reading up on the kinds of experiments conducted at particle accelerators like that at CERN (and watching videos on the Large Hadron Collider), but also by reading Bill Bryson’s book A Short History of Nearly Everything at Tom Hanks’ recommendation. In fact, many crew members were also hooked on the book, comparing notes on such chapters as “Einstein’s Universe,” “The Mighty Atom,” and “Darwin’s Singular Notion.”

Of her character, Zurer says, “Vittoria interested me because she represents that generation of women who are highly educated and in professions that are still male-dominated.† At the same time, she has a life and she hasn’t given up her sensitivity for her career. She is a free thinker and used to exercising her intellect, much different then what she experiences when in the Vatican.”

“Everyone on Ron’s team has known each other for many years and worked on many projects. They operate like bees in a hive,” says Zurer.† “They have codes and a shorthand of communication – like their own language – that I didn’t really understand until later. They were fast and funny and intense, but also laid-back.† It was overwhelming for me.† Ron would say, ‘Relax, slow down, use your lower voice’ – he kept me on that track.† He really wanted Vittoria to be very strong, very smart and straightforward and still emotional about things that happened to her.† I think she feels highly responsible for everything that happens.”

Zurer had free range to decide how Vittoria Vetra’s Italian accent would sound.† “I made a decision to make her sound international, rather than just American with Italian accent,” she says.† “I was sometimes surprised at the way the Italian sort of sat down in my body. It was very comfortable.† I don’t know why it seemed so natural – maybe because I’m Mediterranean – but it’s just something I loved.”

With no Pope, the power of the Vatican resides in his right-hand man, the Camerlengo, until a new Pope is elected. In Angels & Demons, this key figure is played by Ewan McGregor.

“The Camerlengo is a secretary, but when the Pope dies, he is the acting head of state of Vatican City and has quite a bit of power,” notes McGregor. “He’s such a great character to play because there’s so much going on with him.”

“The Camerlengo very much loves the Church and the sense of permanence that it brings. It brings with it the force of history,” McGregor continues. “And now he sees the thing he loves under attack, at its moment of greatest peril. He sees himself as a man who will do whatever it takes to save the Church from the Illuminati and everything they represent.”

The actor was enticed not only by the rich character, but by the chance to work with Ron Howard.

“I was a big fan of Ron Howard – I’d met him a couple of times socially in London when he was filming The Da Vinci Code,” says McGregor. “We'd run into each other at a restaurant that we both liked to go to for Sunday lunch. It's awfully nice to work with a director who is not only good at the technicalities of filmmaking but also can help you in terms of the performance, the emotion of a scene. I think the fact that he's been an actor himself is what makes him such a very, very good director.”

The Camerlengo’s foil within the church is the quiet, dignified Cardinal Strauss, played by veteran actor Armin Mueller-Stahl. Cardinal Strauss, an expert at navigating Vatican politics, knows and sees more than he lets on. In fact, Cardinal Strauss’ impassive, understated approach dovetails with Mueller-Stahl’s attitude towards acting.

“Strauss is always observing and watching what he has to do, to figure out the next step. He doesn’t give away too much of what he thinks, who he suspects and to me that’s also the secret of acting,” says Mueller-Stahl. “You have a face. Underneath is the second face and this second face is always important to bring to life without showing it. The idea is not to show everything, but on the other hand by not showing, you have to reveal it. It must be understandable for the audience but not obvious.”

To research the role, Mueller-Stahl read about the current Pope, and, perhaps, even modeled some of his character upon the real-life pontiff. “I read a bit about Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope, when he was a Cardinal,” he notes.

Mueller-Stahl also called upon memories. “I had met John Paul II when he was a Cardinal, in Krakow,” notes the actor. “But that was long, long ago.”

Working in tandem with Cardinal Strauss – and, indeed, protecting him and the College of Cardinals – is Commander Richter, Commandante Principale of the Swiss Guard, played by Stellan SkarsgÂrd. The Swiss Guard have been defending the Vatican since January 22, 1506 and Richter, the venerable leader of this imposing and dignified force, personifies everything they represent – the utmost dedication, respect and fidelity to the Holy See. As the investigation continues, however, he too may be a suspect.

“As head of the Vatican’s security organization, with four kidnapped Cardinals and a bomb in the Vatican, Richter’s in trouble, but he is a cool character,” says SkarsgÂrd. “He is a very controlled person and we don’t know at various points if we can trust him.”

“Richter despises Langdon, of course,” SkarsgÂrd continues. “He’s a Vatican guy, very religious. With the history between Langdon and the Vatican, Richter does not accept Langdon’s help graciously. They are both trying to solve the crime, but they are pitted against each other in a mutual feeling of skepticism and distrust.”

Naturally, Richter works closely with the Camerlengo in the ongoing investigation. In filming one particularly intense scene between the two characters, Ron Howard positioned cameras such that he could capture both actors’ close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots at the same time. While lighting and blocking the scene was tricky, the arrangement allowed SkarsgÂrd and McGregor to engage each other in a much more organic way.

“Ron understands what makes actors tick,” SkarsgÂrd says. “He knows when and how to take the pressure off of you, and also knows what he can ask of you, what he wants out of the scene, and how he wants to get there. We never talked about the character – our conversations during rehearsals were to figure out the scenes and where we were heading with them.”

The Vatican, in addition to being the heart of the Catholic Church, is also a state within the country of Italy. While the Swiss Guard protects the Pope and the College of Cardinals, the Gendarmarie police everything else within the Vatican walls. When four Cardinals are kidnapped in Angels & Demons, it makes for a jurisdictional nightmare that pits SkarsgÂrd’s Commander Richter against the Gendarmarie’s Inspector Ernesto Olivetti, played by Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino. “Olivetti brings in Langdon after the branding of the priest-physicist at CERN," says Favino. "He understands immediately that they're not able to deal with the situation and brings in Langdon, the only man who knows what the symbols mean. This puts him on shaky ground with Richter – because of Langdon's history with the Vatican, Langdon is a man that Richter does not trust even slightly. Olivetti knows that Richter is basically the one calling the shots because the Swiss Guard is responsible for protecting the Cardinals, and bringing in Langdon is Olivetti's only trump card in the investigation."

“I had a few clues to my character,” says Favino. “I knew that he’d have to be married, so Olivetti wears a wedding ring, even though it never comes up in the movie. The rules for the Gendarmarie aren’t as strict as the Swiss Guard, but Olivetti would be just as Catholic as they are. It was helpful for me to think of him as a man with a family at home.”

One final character rounds out the cast: the shadowy Mr. Gray, brought menacingly to life by Danish actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas. Kaas was immediately drawn to the part by action inherent in the role. “He’s the weapon in the hand,” he says. “He drives all the action in the film – everything that happens in the movie happens because of the plot he executes. I love to do action – it’s great to be a boy again.”

When it came to the character’s accent, Kaas says, he took a cue from the director. “I’m always doing a Russian or Eastern European accent,” he says, “but Ron suggested that I use my own Danish accent. Also, one scene, when I speak to one of the dead Cardinals, I do it in Danish. That idea came from Ron and one of the writers, and I thought it was fantastic.”

The plot of Angels & Demons is set into motion at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Geneva. “What goes on at CERN is exploration of the most adventuresome kind,” says the director. “What I find incredible is that Dan Brown wrote his novel, setting it here at CERN, about ten years ago – and now, a decade later, CERN is in the news, everybody is talking about the experiments they conduct there. It just shows how ahead of the curve he is.”

CERN is one of the world’s largest and most respected centers for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things.

Two beams of subatomic particles called “hadrons” – either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world will analyze the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.

Production began in Rome, where, for a month, Angels & Demons filmed in such famous sites as Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Navona, Castel St. Angelo, outside the beautiful, Baroque Santa Susanna church and the city streets of Rome themselves. Everywhere the production filmed, they were always encouraged by hundreds of enthusiastic, curious tourists and locals.

From the works of Raphael, Michelangelo and Bernini to the obelisks piercing the sky in the many piazzas to the statues pointing the way towards hidden secrets, clues from Dan Brown’s books were everywhere. They were impossible to ignore – as were the throngs of tourists, who, of course, had traveled to Rome to enjoy the city’s renowned art and sites but soon added the Angels & Demons film production to their vacation tour schedule. Just as The Da Vinci Code created a cottage industry of tours relating to the book’s setting in France, Angels & Demons has done the same for Rome, with flocks of tourists taking guided tours covering the Path of Illumination. A “simple” shot of Hanks and Zurer walking across the Piazza Della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon attracted hundreds of onlookers who often had their backs to the ancient Roman temple, standing shoulder to shoulder on its portico, just to watch and photograph the filming. The atmosphere was often festive and hurried, and at one point a wedding party appeared in the square as the crew was setting up for another shot. It turned out the bride and groom had an appointment to be wed near the Pantheon location where Angels & Demons was to film. Chivalrously, Tom Hanks helped the bride and her father navigate their way to the Pantheon, through the equipment, lights and cameras.

As it turned out, this rather frenetic, crowded ambiance suited cinematographer Salvatore Totino. “All the tourists in Rome provided a bit of fun pandemonium and in a way that worked well with our approach. Ron and I talked about giving the film a sense of urgency – there’s a bomb that is going to go off in the Vatican if they don’t stop it, so the goal was to convey that high-stakes deadline cinematically by capturing the consequences of the human and historical toll. We wanted to keep the camera moving so we used longer lenses, with emphasis on the Steadicam, the slider and dolly work,” Totino says.

One of Totino and gaffer Rafael E. Sanchez’s biggest challenges in Rome happened at Castel Sant’Angelo. Built by Emperor Hadrian in 128 AD as his own tomb, Castel Sant’Angelo has been a prison, fortress and papal residence. The bridge leading to the Castel boasts a phalanx of angel statues, as is typical in Rome, but the for the night work on Angels & Demons, each one received its own special lighting set up. Sanchez and crew treated the Castel to its own spectacular up-lighting.

Totino says that Sanchez’s suggestion to uplight the Castel greatly helped the production, which had a lot to get done in only two nights.

“Castel Sant’Angelo took a lot of effort and was kind of pieced together because of the extreme limitations in terms of what we were allowed to do and the limited rigging time that we had there. When we first scouted, Rafi suggested architectural lighting, which was a great approach for it and helped us. In other words, we made lighting a little bit more conscious there, as opposed to lighting it piece by piece. By doing that, it helped us remain more contained there. The nights were short and we had one night at the bridge and the entrance and one night in the interior. We had to get in and out, so that kind of lighting absolutely helped,” Totino says.

The exterior night work at the Castel Sant’Angelo included buzzing helicopters with searchlights and a cadre of police in an array of vehicles, their lights blazing, sirens blaring. While this may have been entertaining for the inevitable hordes of tourists, the Vatican, which is adjacent to the Castel and, indeed, connected by a passageway, may not have appreciated the ruckus.

Production resumed in Los Angeles, where Rome was resurrected on the studio lot and in nearby locations.

“Among the locations to build, we needed a large scale version of St. Peter’s Square and Piazza Navona,” says Todd Hallowell, executive producer. “I asked the location manager to use Google Earth to find a venue close to Sony. We just started drawing little circles from the studio and the first parcel of land we could see that was vacant land big enough to handle what we needed was the Hollywood Park racetrack. And so I said, ‘Well, drive over there and talk to those people. See if you can make some kind of deal. We’re going to need, I don’t know, twenty acres of flat parking lot.’ He did and they were happy to have us and treated us very well. It was eight miles from the studio and was an ideal location.”

Fittingly, the production’s replicas of St. Peter’s Square and Piazza Navona sat directly across from possibly the only other faux Roman building in Los Angeles – the L.A. Forum, which resembles, of course, its ancient Italian counterpart. In addition, the production had the pleasure of recreating the Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, and Castel Sant’Angelo, as well as the frescoes, fountains and statues of Michelangelo and Bernini.

The art department collected much of its research for sets and props the same way any tourist or student might – through books, the internet and a high-end digital camera. Most areas of the Vatican and Rome welcome tourists wielding cameras of all sorts, so troops from the various departments became part of the daily throng of backpack-wearing, guidebook toting visitors documenting the sites.

From that research, Allan Cameron’s art department designed and built the sets so that walls could be removed or lights and equipment could be accommodated. He worked closely with Angus Bickerton, visual effects supervisor, so that the sets would seamlessly blend with shots of the real places that could be digitally married in post-production. “When I design a set, obviously, I have to keep the camera moves in mind and just how the director might choreograph the action and blocking, so I tend to design a set around the script requirements rather than the reality of the place,” says Cameron. “For instance, the real Santa Maria Della Vittoria in Rome is quite small and the action that takes place there in the film is quite complex. So Sal, our director of photography, and Ron wanted to use camera cranes in there, so we had to enlarge the aisles and enlarge the nave and make it slightly bigger than the real one just to accommodate the action.”

The scenes there also required a raging fire and thick smoke, so the baroque church also featured swaths of blue screen, where the visual effects team would later augment the fire in post-production.

The breathtaking west coast incarnation of St. Peter’s Square, rising from behind shipping containers in the sprawling parking lot at Hollywood Park, in contrast, was smaller than the real thing, mostly made of plywood and Styrofoam and accented by green screen. This reduction was no surprise – St. Peter’s Square, designed by Bernini, can easily accommodate 300,000 people. The Square is partially ringed by two curved covered colonnades containing 284 Doric columns and the 140 statues of saints and martyrs stand regally on top.

“Our version was about 2/3 the size of the real one, but it will look full-size on film because of the combination of the physical set, camera angles, the real place and visual effects,” Cameron says. “I spent a lot of time with the visual effects department and Angus, building models, going over drawings, discussing logistics of what should be real and what should later be done in the computer. In the end, we came up with an efficient way of doing it.”

One method the filmmakers used throughout the movie was to combine “low” and ‘high” technology. Thus, Pope Sixtus V’s 350-ton Egyptian obelisk, which stands out even in a setting as grand and elegant as St. Peter’s Square (and which serves as a pivotal plot point in the film), was built to actual size while the colonnade was slightly smaller than in real life. This was because most of the action involving actors took place near the obelisk while the colonnade was mostly in the background; a careful use of perspective in the camera allowed the entire set to appear the appropriate size. Visual effects would recreate any wide shot that required the colonnade to appear in all its majesty. To do this, Bickerton strategically placed cameras around the set to make sure he captured all the details, and, specifically, Totino’s camerawork so Angus could match it in the computer. Several “witness cams” were placed throughout the re-created St. Peter’s Square and mini-HD cameras rode atop Totino’s Arriflexes, documenting every camera angle for the visual effects team to match in post-production.

To re-create Rome’s famous marble floors, Cameron’s team used computers and high-quality printers and design and print marble contact paper. It was sturdy enough to withstand most of the demands of filming but still needed some protection. So the production issued an edict: No street shoes allowed on the floor – everyone had to don protective blue booties, like those worn in hospitals, before entering and traipsing around the set.

The production ultimately took over eight stages on the Sony Pictures lot, which were repurposed after scenes finished; for instance, stage 30 began as the interior of Santa Maria del Popolo church and later became Santa Maria Della Vittoria. Similarly, after the production completed the scenes at St. Peter’s Square, Hollywood Park transformed into the Piazza Navona. While the production did film some at the actual Piazza Navona, it relocated to Los Angeles, in part, because of Rome’s endless restoration of Bernini’s Fountain of Four Rivers. With the real thing covered in scaffolding, the filmmakers asked Cameron’s team to make movie magic.

The Four Rivers re-creation was truly a marvel. The structure features Bernini’s dramatic personifications of the Danube, the Ganges, the Rio de la Plata and the Nile (symbolic of the four continents known at the time) and several beasts, including fantastic lions. Cameron’s replica spared no detail – the fountain and its circular tank looked exactly like the original, even in Styrene, and held up over a week of night shooting that involved the rescue of one of the kidnapped Cardinals.

In addition to the Four Rivers, Cameron’s crew reproduced other Bernini statues, such as Habakkuk and the Angel and the Ecstasy of Santa Maria, which serve as Langdon’s clues along the Path of Illumination. Sculptor Martin Smeaton and his team photographed the statues from every conceivable angle and made small clay maquettes, to ensure the proportions were correct before he committed to carving them into full-size Styrene reproductions.

Among the many wonderful, enormously intricate sets Cameron’s team built, one of the highlights was the Sistine Chapel, which was built to scale on stage 27 at the Sony lot in Culver City. Ironically, the only piece of the Sistine Chapel that Cameron did not replicate was the famous ceiling – that’s where the lighting rigs lived so the set itself remained free of any lighting gear. Although Cameron was otherwise fairly faithful to Michelangelo’s masterpiece, he did have to alter its palette slightly for cinematic purposes.

“All together, I think we reproduced about 20 of the paintings there, including Michelangelo’s Last Judgment,” Cameron recalls. “I deliberately kept the colors of the Sistine Chapel slightly more somber than they might be so Daniel’s costumes would really zing against them.”

Daniel would be Daniel Orlandi, the movie’s costume designer and much of the “zing” came from the crimson robes of the College of Cardinals, who gather in the Sistine Chapel after the death of the Pope for their conclave, in which they choose the next Vicar of Christ. Orlandi worked with Howard previously on The Da Vinci Code and, through that, had some knowledge of the Vatican but, he says, the research required for Angels & Demons was much more specific.

“We essentially made the Vatican wardrobe – we made all the Cardinals, 200 Cardinal outfits in all; we made robes and wardrobe for bishops, priests, nuns, all the Swiss Guard, the laypeople who work at the Vatican – they wear these double-breasted uniforms with a little burgundy collar and brass buttons. All those costumes were handmade, you can’t buy them,” Orlandi notes.

Orlandi became an expert in the minutia of the Vatican wardrobe and notes that although the Cardinals’ wardrobe may appear monolithic, each vestment has religious significance and, to some extent, personal variation. This applies also to and, perhaps, reaches its apex with the Pope.

“It was so interesting to talk to the ecclesiastical makers of the Pope’s clothes and about what the Cardinals wear when they come to conclave,” says Orlandi. “Some of them have never been to Rome. The people who make the clothes feel that they are doing God’s work. It’s quite inspirational.”

Their clothes are also complex. Every time Armin Mueller-Stahl donned his costume, he experienced a tiny bit of the church’s ancient rituals. “Daniel had done so much research and was very clear about what I would be wearing and when. He was specific about the kind of shoes, the different types of hats, what kind of white shirt, which vestment went on first…” he says.

Orlandi also had to create a look for the “new” Pope in the film. Orlandi decided to model him after Pope Benedict. “The Pope’s clothing is quite elaborate and beautifully done,” Orlandi says. “We had it made in Rome – it is quite stunning. We put a stole on him that looks exactly like the one Pope Benedict wore. It has an archaic and ritualistic look. There was a big debate about how the new Pope had gone to the Roman style of papal dress as opposed to the Gothic style, which is what Pope John Paul wore. He wore a velvet cap with ermine and it was striking because no one had worn that since medieval times. Every Pope sets his own style. In our movie, we designed a Roman-style miter based on patterns we found in Italy – it is hand embroidered with Swarovski crystals.”

In a sea of red Cardinal and magenta bishop robes, a black-clad figure stands out – Ewan McGregor as the Camerlengo, in his severe, elegant cassock. With its fitted waist and flaring side panels, 33 small buttons down the front to symbolize each year of Jesus’ life, his costume was always a stark and mesmerizing contrast. It also worked exceedingly well in terms of the moving frame Totino and Howard wanted to accent in the film.

“Ewan’s cassock was handmade, in Rome, with a most beautiful wool that had a shiny finish. And he wears it so well. Fitted perfectly, as they are. I had worked with Ewan before and I was so excited that he was going to be in this film. We had done a film called Down By Love and had the most fun. We took no license with his cassock, it is exactly what a very, very well dressed priest would wear at the Vatican. We discussed how great it would look if he were running with the cassock flying behind him and it worked beautifully,” Orlandi says.

Orlandi also had to recreate the flamboyant uniforms of the Swiss Guard, done in the red, yellow and blue colors of the Medici. A favorite of tourists, the movie Swiss Guard regiment was no different – in fact, at one point, Tom Hanks surprised the crew by coming to set dressed in the colorful uniform.

For Angels & Demons, director Ron Howard again teamed up with composer Hans Zimmer. Although Angels & Demons features Robert Langdon, whose adventures were previously chronicled in 2006’s The Da Vinci Code, the score for Angels & Demons required an entirely different approach.

The nature of the story called for something new. The adventure of Angels & Demons is reflected in each aspect of the collaboration between Ron Howard, Producer Brian Grazer, the editors, sound team, and of course in Zimmer's score. Zimmer focused on finding ways to make the music as agile and kinetic as Robert Langdon’s firing synapses, using a chamber group instead of a traditional orchestra in order to create that sense of action.

At the same time, since Angels & Demons was equally about religion and science, Zimmer took the orchestral in combination with choir to represent religion, while using electronics to denote science. Because Zimmer’s intention in putting together the orchestral was to go for individual players really standing out, he went to the best, bringing in violinist Joshua Bell. The result was a collision Zimmer describes as, “the beauty of Joshua’s violin framed by the starkness of the electronics.”

Howard says, “There’s nothing formulaic about the way Hans thinks about the score,” adding that Zimmer’s music always “suits the sound that the film calls for.” In this case, it was the feeling of experimentation and fun to the adventure, which Zimmer captures by playing a musical game. As a nod to the symbologist character, Zimmer hid a five-note musical ambigram into the score. Whether or not anyone figures it out remains to be seen, but one thing is certain; as Howard says: Zimmer is “a fantastic storyteller.”

Raised in Oakland, California, Hanks became interested in acting during high school. †He attended Chabot College in Hayward, California, and the California State University in Sacramento. †At the invitation of artistic director Vincent Dowling, he made his professional debut at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. †He performed in that company for three seasons.

Moving to New York City in 1978, Hanks performed with the Riverside Shakespeare Company before he was teamed with Peter Scolari in the ABC television comedy series “Bosom Buddies.” †This led to starring roles in Ron Howard’s Splash, his first collaboration with the director. †In 1988, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized his performances in both Big and Punchline with the Best Actor Award.

Roles followed in films such as A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle.

In 1996, Hanks wrote and directed That Thing You Do!. The film’s title song was nominated for an Academy AwardÆ for Best Original Song.

After re-teaming with Ron Howard in Apollo 13, Hanks served as an executive producer, writer, director and actor for HBO’s “From the Earth to the Moon” —an Emmy-winning 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored the Apollo space program.

In 1998, Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, for which he received his fourth OscarÆ nomination. †The following year he starred in The Green Mile, which was written and directed by Frank Darabont and is based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King.

In 2000, Hanks reunited with director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. in Cast Away, for which he received yet another OscarÆ nomination.

In 2000, he served again with Steven Spielberg, as executive producer, writer and director for another epic HBO miniseries, “Band of Brothers,” based on Stephen Ambrose’s book. †The miniseries aired in the fall of 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to an Emmy Award and Golden Globe for the Best Miniseries in 2002.††

In 2002, Hanks starred in Road to Perdition, opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law under Sam Mendes’ direction. †It was followed by Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, which was based on the true-life exploits of international confidence man Frank Abagnale, Jr.

Hanks teamed for a third time with Spielberg in The Terminal, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and followed it with the Coen brothers’ dark comedy, The Ladykillers. †In November 2004, Hanks starred in the film adaptation of the Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, which reunited him once again with director Robert Zemeckis.

In 2006, Hanks was seen playing Robert Langdon in the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, helmed by Ron Howard and also starring Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Ian McKellen and Jean Reno.

In 2007, Hanks starred opposite Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War.††

Born in Scotland, Ewan McGregor (Camerlengo Patrick McKenna) started acting with the Perth Repertory Theatre, and was still a student at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama when he won a leading role in Dennis Potter’s BBC series, “Lipstick on your Collar.” He has worked steadily ever since.

McGregor played the lead role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas’ celebrated three prequels to his initial Star Wars trilogy. He made his feature debut in Bill Forsyth’s Being Human and the next year won widespread acclaim for Shallow Grave, his first collaboration with director Danny Boyle. In 1996 he starred in Boyle’s critically hailed Trainspotting as junkie Mark Renton.

Early film credits include Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow, Brassed Off and Little Voice (both for director Mark Herman), Philippe Rousselot’s The Serpent’s Kiss Danny Boyle’s A Life Less Ordiinary with Cameron Diaz, and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine. At this time he also guest starred in “E.R.” and was nominated for an Emmy for his performance.

In 2001, McGregor starred opposite Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s musical Moulin Rouge!. The same year he made Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down.

McGregor also starred in Deception opposite Michelle Williams as well as Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, opposite Colin Farrell. Additionally, McGregor also starred in Miss Potter and Down with Love, both opposite Renee Zellweger; Young Adam, Tim Burton’s Big Fish with Albert Finney, and the animated comedy Robots. He starred in Michael Bay’s The Island opposite Scarlet Johansson, and in Marc Forster’s Stay with Naomi Watts.

McGregor debuted on the West End stage as Sky Masterson in the Donmar Theatre’s multi-award-winning production of “Guys and Dolls.” He then revisited the stage again in 2008 when he starred in the critically acclaimed West End production of “Othello.”

Upcoming films include the thriller Incendiary, in which he will reunite with co-star Michelle Williams; I Love You, Phillip Morris, opposite Jim Carrey and Amelia, co-starring Hillary Swank. He has recently completed filming on Men Who Stare At Goats, also starring George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. His documentary series “Long Way Down,” which chronicled the actor’s motorbike trip from Northern Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa premiered on August 2nd, 2008 on Fox Reality Channel.

AYELET ZURER (Dr. Vittoria Vetra) is one of Israel’s most acclaimed actresses. She first garnered the attention of Hollywood when cast by Steven Spielberg in her first English speaking role as Eric Bana’s wife in the OscarÆ nominated film Munich. Since arriving in the United States, Zurer has starred in several films including Sony Pictures’ Vantage Point with Dennis Quaid and William Hurt, Samuel Goldwyn’s Fugitive Pieces opposite Stephen Dillane, and Paul Schrader’s Adam Resurrected opposite Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe.

Lauded in Israel for her talents, Zurer won the Ophir (the Israeli Academy Award) for her lead performance in Nina’s Tragedies.† She also received nominations for her work in the features Only Dogs Run Free, The Dybbuk from the Holy Apple Field, Desperado, and Rutenberg.† Zurer also won the Israeli Television Academy Award for her captivating lead performance in “In Treatment,” a highly acclaimed television series that has been adapted by HBO for American television.† Recently, the Haifa International Film Festival awarded Zurer a star on Haifa's "Film Boulevard,” outside the Cinematheque where the festival is held.

Zurer has illustrated two books including the best seller "Badolina" by Gabi Nitzan and Paulo Coelho’s collection of short stories “Ktzartzarim” which she also edited.

A major star in his native Sweden since the 1970s, Stellan Skarsg_rd (Commander Richter) has become an international star of considerable reputation. He became a teen star in 1968 after playing the title role in the TV miniseries “Bambi Bitt ach jag” and has been working ever since. He recently played Bill in the hit romantic comedy Mamma Mia! and guest-starred on the HBO series “Entourage.”

From 1972 to 1988, he was employed at the Royal Drmatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he starred in such productions as “Vita rum,” “Ett drmspel” and “Master Olof,” working with directors such as Alf Sjberg, Per Verner-Carlsson and Ingmar Bergman.

SkarsgÂrd has appeared in more than 50 films since 1982. His performance in Hans Alfredson’s The Simple-Minded urder garnered him both a Guldbagge (Swedish Oscar) and a Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. He also played the lead in the OscarÆ-nominated Oxen, directed by world-renowned cinematographer Sven Nykvist.

His first English-language role was in Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988. He followed that with his role as Russian submarine captain Tupalev in John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October. His breakthrough came with his riveting performance as the paraplegic in Lars von Trier’s much-lauded Breaking the Waves, opposite Emily Watson. He made two more films with von Trier, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville.

Following Breaking the Waves, SkarsgÂrd appeared in several American films in supporting roles. These films include Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting and Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, both for which he won the Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema at the European Film Awards in 1998. He also appeared in John Frankenheimer’s Ronin. Other leading role credits in American and international cinema include Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s Insomnia, Renny Harlin’s Deep Blue Sea, Hans Petter Moland’s Aberden, for which he received a Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards in 2000; Mike Figgis’ Timecode, Stewart Sugg’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Daniel Sackheim’s The Glass House and Istvn Szab’s Taking Sides, for which he received another Best Actor nomination at the European Film Awards in 2001 and won Best Actor at the Mar del Plata Film Festival.

Pierfrancesco Favino (Inspector Ernesto Olivetti), a native of Rome, Italy, he graduated from the Silvio d'Amico National Drama Academy before honing his craft at the Teatro di Roma under the direction of Luca Ronconi.† He started his career in the theatre (directed by such renowned Italian artists as Ronconi and Gigi Proietti) before making his film debut in the 1995 boxing drama Pugili, directed by Lino Capolicchio.†

Over the past decade, Favino has showcased his versatility in both drama and comedy in films directed by a host of popular Italian filmmakers, including Luigi Magni (La Carbonara), Marco Bellocchio (Il Principe di Homburg, a Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or nominee), Gabriele Muccino (L'Ultimo bacio, Audience Award, 2002 Sundance Film Festival; David di Donatello nominee, Best Film), Giuseppe Tornatore (La Sconosciuta), Francesco Apolloni (La Verit‡, vi prego, sull'amore), Gianni Amelio (Le Chiavi di casa, Pasinetti Award, 2004 Venice Film Festival), Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale), Ferzan Ozpetek (Saturno Contro), and Maria Sole Tognazzi (L'uomo che ama).

Favino's American films include the megahit Night at the Museum, in which he played Christopher Columbus, The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian, as Lord Glozelle and Spike Lee's World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna.

He won the David di Donatello Award for his supporting turn as The Lebanese, a ruthless gangster bent on conquering Rome's crime world, in Romanzo Criminale, which received 14 total nominations, including one for Best Film.† Favino also won the Nastro d'Argento Award as Best Actor for his performance, and earned another nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his work in Le chiavi di casa.† He won the Premio Diamanti Award as Best Actor at Venice Film Festival for Saturno Contro. He collected his first nomination for Italy's prestigious Donatello prize for his supporting role of a World War II soldier fighting in Africa in El Alamein, directed by Enzo Monteleone.

His television work includes the great Italian biopics "Gino Bartali, L'Intramontabile" and "Pane e Libert‡" (the life of the italian syndicalist Giuseppe Di Vittorio). Favino co-starred "Padre Pio" and "Enzo Ferrari" with Sergio Castellitto.

Despite his relatively young age, NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS (Assassin/Mr. Gray) already ranks as one of the most critically-acclaimed actors to emerge from Scandinavia. Since the early 1990s, he has carved out a remarkable career on both screen and stage. Kaas made his feature debut at the age of 17 in S¯ren Kragh-Jacobsen’s The Boys from St. Petri, a role for which he was awarded the Robert (Danish Academy Award) and Bodil (Danish Film Critics' Award) for Best Supporting Role in 1992. Immediately upon graduating from the National Theatre School in 1998, Kaas starred in Lars Von Trier’s controversial black comedy, The Idiots. As one of several intelligent young adults who pretend to be mentally and/or physically disabled in order to provoke a social response, Kaas earned a second Bodil for Best Supporting Role in 1999.

Over the years, Kaas has played a variety of different roles—often imbuing his adult characters with the unsentimental innocence and vulnerability of a child. Kaas earned his second Robert—this time for Best Leading Role—for his performance in Truly Human, a modern fable in which Kaas plays an invisible man who gets the chance to become a real human being. Susanne Bier’s Open Hearts (2002) featured Kaas as a vibrant young man who must adjust to his new life as a quadriplegic. The critically-acclaimed film garnered Kaas his third Robert and third Bodil for Best Supporting Role as well as a Shooting Star Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2003. Constantly playing against type, Kaas starred as the romantic lead in Reconstruction which won the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. Other film credits include Ole Bornedal’s Just Another Love Story (2007 Toronto and 2008 Sundance Film Festivals), Susanne Bier’s Brothers with Connie Nielsen, Anders Thomas Jensen’s Adam’s Apples, In China They Eat Dogs, and Flickering Lights. Kaas made his English-language debut as a Russian gangster in Picturehouse/HBO’s PU-239 opposite Paddy Considine and Radha Mitchell. Most recently, he starred in Kasper Barfoed’s thriller, The Candidate. He stars next in Tomas Villum Jensen’s film, At World’s End.

In addition to his extensive filmography, Kaas is no stranger to the stage and has starred in numerous productions at the Royal Danish Theatre alone—including classics like “Peer Gynt” (2001), for which he received a Reumert Award for Best Leading Role, as well as “Ivanhoe” (2003). Most recently, he starred in a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (2008).

Kaas resides in Copenhagen. He is represented by Industry Entertainment (US) and Lindberg Management.

For his performance in Scott Hicks’s Shine, ARMIN MUELLER-STAHL (Cardinal Strauss) was an Academy AwardÆ nominee as well as (with his fellow actors from the film) a Screen Actors Guild Award nominee.

Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, and raised in East Berlin. He is an actor, musician, painter, writer, and director. Following his studies, he made his theatrical debut in 1952, performing in classical plays at Berlin’s Volksb¸hne. He then began working in television and film, making his screen debut in Gustav von Wangenheim’s Heimliche Ehen.

He starred in several features for Frank Beyer, among them Jacob the Liar (1975), Five Cartridges, and Royal Children; and earned critical acclaim for his portrayals in Egon G¸nther’s The Third and Roland Gr‰f’s The Flight.

After moving to West Berlin in 1979, Mueller-Stahl starred for Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Lola and Veronika Voss; in Niklaus Schilling’s Der Westen leuchtet; and won the Best Actor Award at the 1985 MontrÈal World Film Festival for his work in Agnieszka Holland’s Angry Harvest.

His many other films include Patrice ChÈreau’s L’Homme blessÈ; Istv·n SzabÛ’s Colonel Redl; Costa-Gavras’s Music Box; Barry Levinson’s Avalon; George Sluizer’s Utz, for which he was named Best Actor at the 1992 Berlin International Film Festival; Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth; Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka; Rob Bowman’s The X Files; Peter Kassovitz’ Jakob the Liar (1999); Agnieszka Holland’s The Third Miracle; and Conversation with the Beast, which he directed, co-wrote, and starred in as Adolf Hitler. He most recently starred in The International, in which he reunited with Eastern Promises leading lady Naomi Watts.

Mueller-Stahl has published Drehtage (1991), a reflection of his life and work; Verordneter Sonntag (1983); Unterwegs nach Hause (1996); In Gedanken an Marie Louise (1998); the short story Hannah (2004); the novella Venice (2005), containing diary entries and sketches; Kettenkarussell (2006); Armin Mueller-Stahl Portraits: Painting and Drawing (2006), and many more collections of works containing paintings, lithographs and sketches.

At the 2007 Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the OscarsÆ, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Academy AwardÆ-winning filmmaker RON HOWARD (Directed by/Produced by) is one of this generation’s most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 to the hit comedies Parenthood and Splash, he has created some of Hollywood’s most memorable films. Most recently, he directed the big screen adaptation of the international bestseller The Da Vinci Code, starring OscarÆ winner Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno and Paul Bettany. Prior to The Da Vinci Code, Howard directed and produced Cinderella Man starring OscarÆ winner Russell Crowe, with whom he previously collaborated with on A Beautiful Mind, for which Howard earned an OscarÆ for Best Director and which also won awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. The film garnered four Golden Globes as well, including the award for Best Motion Picture Drama. Additionally, Howard won Best Director of the Year from the Directors Guild of America. Howard and producer Brian Grazer received the first annual Awareness Award from the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign for their work on the film.

Howard also produced and directed the film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s critically acclaimed play Frost / Nixon directed. The film, which was released in December 2008, has been nominated for 5 Academy AwardsÆ including Best Picture, and was also nominated for The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures by the PGA.

Howard’s portfolio includes some of the most popular films of the past 20 years. In 1991, Howard created the acclaimed drama Backdraft, starring Robert De Niro, Kurt Russell and William Baldwin. He followed it with the historical epic Far and Away, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Howard directed Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise and Delroy Lindo in the 1996 suspense thriller Ransom. Howard worked with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and Kathleen Quinlan on Apollo 13, which was re-released recently in the IMAX format. Howard’s other films include the blockbuster Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey; Parenthood, starring Steve Martin; the fantasy epic Willow; and Night Shift, starring Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton and Shelley Long; and the suspenseful western, The Missing, staring OscarÆ winners Cate Blachett and Tommy Lee Jones.

Howard has also served as an executive producer on a number of award-winning films and television shows, such as the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and Fox’s Emmy award winner for Best Comedy, Arrested Development, for which he also narrated. He is also producing the television series Parenthood, based on the comedy he directed.

Howard and long-time producing partner Brian Grazer first collaborated on the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash. The pair co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 to create independently produced feature films. The company has since produced a variety of popular feature films, including such hits as American Gangster, Friday Night Lights, The Nutty Professor, The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Bowfinger, The Paper and Liar, Liar. Howard and Grazer produced the recently released drama Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and staring Angelina Jolie. Howard made his directorial debut in 1978 with the comedy Grand Theft Auto.

He began his career in film as an actor. He first appeared in The Journey and The Music Man, then as Opie on the long-running television series The Andy Griffith Show. Howard later starred in the popular series Happy Days and drew favorable reviews for his performances in American Graffiti and The Shootist.

Academy AwardÆ-winning producer Brian Grazer (Produced by) has been making movies and television programs for more than 25 years.† As both a writer and producer, he has been personally nominated for four Academy AwardsÆ, and in 2002 he won the Best Picture OscarÆ for A Beautiful Mind.† In addition to winning three other Academy AwardsÆ, A Beautiful Mind also won four Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture Drama) and earned Grazer the first annual Awareness Award from the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign.

Over the years, Grazer's films and TV shows have been nominated for a total of 52 OscarsÆ and 94 Emmys.† At the same time, his movies have generated more than $13 billion in worldwide theatrical, music and video grosses.† Reflecting this combination of commercial and artistic achievement, the Producers Guild of America honored Grazer with the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.† His accomplishments have also been recognized by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which in 1998 added Grazer to the short list of producers with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On March 6^th, 2003. ShoWest celebrated Grazer’s success by honoring him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. On November 14^th, 2005, Grazer was honored in Los Angeles by the Fulfillment Fund. In May 2007, Grazer was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” On January 24^th, Grazer, along with his partner Ron Howard, was honored with the Milestone Award by the Producers Guild of America.

In addition to A Beautiful Mind, Grazer's films include Apollo 13, for which Grazer won the Producers Guild's Daryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award as well as an OscarÆ nomination for Best Picture of 1995; and Splash, which he co-wrote as well as produced and for which he received an OscarÆ nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1986.†

Grazer also produced the film adaptation of Peter Morgan’s critically acclaimed play Frost / Nixon directed by Ron Howard. The film, which was released in December 2008, has been nominated for 5 Academy AwardsÆ including Best Picture, and was also nominated for The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures by the PGA.

Grazer is currently in production on Robin Hood. The drama teams him up again with director Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe.

Other feature film credits include the drama Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie; the Ridley Scott directed drama American Gangster, staring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington; the big screen adaptation of the international bestseller The Da Vinci Code, staring Tom Hanks, and directed by OscarÆ-winner Ron Howard; the tense drama The Inside Man, directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster; Flightplan; Cinderella Man; the Sundance acclaimed documentary INSIDE Deep Throat; Friday Night Lights; 8 Mile; Blue Crush; Intolerable Cruelty; Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas; The Nutty Professor; Liar, Liar; Ransom; My Girl; Backdraft; Kindergarten Cop; Parenthood; Clean and Sober; and Spies Like Us.

Grazer's television productions include Fox's hit Golden Globe and Emmy award winning Best Drama Series 24, NBC’s Peabody Award winning series Friday Night Lights, and Fox’s Lie To Me, staring Tim Roth, which premiered in January 2009. He is also working on additional television projects including Parenthood based on his 1989 film, and Wonderland, directed by Pete Berg. His additional television credits include Fox’s Emmy award winning Best Comedy Arrested Development, CBS’s Shark NBC’s Miss Match, WB's Felicity, ABC's SportsNight, as well as HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, for which he won the EmmyÆ for Outstanding Mini-Series.†

Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects.† It was while he was executive-producing TV pilots for Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s that Grazer first met his longtime friend and business partner Ron Howard.† Their collaboration began in 1985 with the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash, and in 1986 the two founded Imagine Entertainment, which they continue to run together as chairmen.

John Calley (Produced by) who most recently produced Sony Pictures’ The Jane Austen Book Club and The Da Vinci Code, is a veteran Hollywood executive and producer. Beginning his career in television production in the 1950s, Calley would go on to produce such films as The Loved One, The Cincinnati Kid, Castle Keep, and Catch-22. He later served as President of Warner Bros., during which time that studio would release such acclaimed films as Dirty Harry, A Clockwork Orange, McCabe And Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, Enter the Dragon, Mean Streets, The Exorcist, Blazing Saddles, The Towering Inferno, Dog Day Afternoon, Superman and Chariots of Fire. Following his tenure at Warner Bros., Calley returned to independent production, producing Postcards from the Edge and The Remains of the Day (which earned him a Best Picture nomination). In 1993 Calley returned to the executive suite as President and Chief Operating Officer of United Artists Pictures, and in 1996, he joined Sony Pictures Entertainment as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, a position he held until 2003. Upon leaving the Chairmanship, he immediately segued into producing Closer directed by Mike Nichols, which brought OscarÆ nominations for two of its stars, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. He also recently produced the television miniseries “The Company,” based on the book by Robert Littel. The miniseries was awarded the WGA award for best writing by Ken Nolan and received a Golden Globe nomination for best miniseries.

DAVID KOEPP (Screenplay) has written and directed the films Ghost Town (2008), Secret Window (2004), Stir of Echoes (1999), The Trigger Effect (1996), and Suspicious (1994). He wrote or co-wrote Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), War of the Worlds (2005), Zathura (2005), Spider-Man (2002), Panic Room (2002), Snake Eyes (1998), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Paper (1994), Jurassic Park (1993), Carlito’s Way (1993), Death Becomes Her (1992), Bad Influence (1990) and Apartment Zero (1989).

Zathura and Ghost Town were co-written with John Kamps.

Koepp was born in Pewaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from UCLA’s film school in 1986. He lives in New York City with his wife and three sons.

Akiva Goldsman (Screenplay) received the 2001 Academy AwardÆ, Golden GlobeÆ, and Writers Guild Award for his screenplay A Beautiful Mind.† Focusing on the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the film was directed by Ron Howard, produced by Brian Grazer, starred Russell Crowe, and won four OscarsÆ, including Best Picture.†

†

Goldsman also earned BAFTA and WGA nominations for his screenplay Cinderella Man, which re-teamed him with Howard, Grazer, and Crowe.

†

Goldsman most recently produced the worldwide smash Hancock, starring Will Smith, which has earned over $625,000,000 around the world.† Goldsman also wrote and produced the megahit I Am Legend, which also† starred Smith and took in more than $250,000,000 domestically and more than $580,000,000 worldwide.†

†

In 2006, his adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, directed by Howard, produced by Grazer, and starring Tom Hanks, became an international phenomenon, taking in more than $750,000,000 worldwide.†

††

Goldsman’s many other writing credits include The Client, starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones, Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, and Tommy Lee Jones, A Time to Kill, starring Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock, Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock, and I Robot, starring Will Smith.

†

As a producer, Goldsman founded Weed Road Pictures.† Goldsman produced the smash hit action film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and directed by Doug Liman.† One of the top hits of summer 2005, the film took in more than $450 million worldwide.† Through Weed Road Pictures, Goldsman also produced the hit films Deep Blue Sea, Starsky & Hutch, and Constantine. Weed Road is currently in production on Fair Game, starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, and JONAH HEX, starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich.

†

Goldsman grew up in Brooklyn Heights, the son of two psychotherapists, who ran a group home for emotionally disturbed children.† His experiences there inspired him to become a writer, and, ultimately, informed his adaptation of A Beautiful Mind, due to his deep connection to the material.†

†

Goldsman graduated from Wesleyan University and attended the graduate program in creative writing at New York University.† He splits his time between Los Angeles and New York with his wife, Rebecca, and their dogs, Fizz, Mouse and Echo.

DAN BROWN (Based upon the Novel / Executive Producer) is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Da Vinci Code – one of the best selling novels of all time. In early 2004, all four of Dan Brown's novels held spots on the New York Times bestseller list during the same week.

Brown has made appearances on CNN, The Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, as well as in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and others. His novels have been translated and published in more than 48 languages around the world.

Brown is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts fully to writing. In 1996, his interest in code-breaking and covert government agencies led him to write his first novel, Digital Fortress, which quickly became a #1 national bestselling eBook. Set within the clandestine National Security Agency, the novel explores the fine line between civilian privacy and national security. Brown’s follow-up techno-thriller, Deception Point, centered on similar issues of morality in politics, national security, and classified technology.

The son of a Presidential Award winning math professor and of a professional sacred musician, Brown grew up surrounded by the paradoxical philosophies of science and religion. These complementary perspectives served as inspiration for his bestselling novel Angels & Demons—a science vs. religion thriller set within a Swiss physics lab and Vatican City. Recently, he has begun work on a series of symbology thrillers featuring his popular protagonist Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of iconography and religious art. The upcoming series will include books set in Paris, London, and Washington D.C.

Brown’s wife, Blythe—an art history buff and painter—collaborates on his research and accompanies him on his frequent research trips, their latest to Paris, where they spent time in the Louvre for his thriller, The Da Vinci Code.

The Da Vinci Code has sold some 84 million copies worldwide and was adapted for the screen by Columbia Pictures.

TODD HALLOWELL (Executive Producer) most recently served as executive producer and second-unit director on Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, Cinderella Man and the Academy Award^Æ-winning A Beautiful Mind.

Hallowell started his career as assistant art director (and Ron Howard’s photo double) on Roger Corman’s Grand Theft Auto, Howard’s 1978 directorial debut. He subsequently served as art director on Back to the Future, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Fletch and the pilot for Michael Mann’s groundbreaking TV series Miami Vice.

Hallowell moved up to production designer on Adventures in Babysitting, Burglar, Vital Signs, The Dream Team, Class Action and Howard’s Parenthood. He directed the second-unit sequences in Striking Distance, Adventures in Babysitting and Money Train.

Continuing his collaboration with Howard, Hallowell served as associate producer/second-unit director on Backdraft and Far and Away, and on The Paper, he multitasked as executive producer, production designer and second-unit director.

For Howard’s award-winning Apollo 13, he repeated his duties as executive producer/second-unit director and received, along with producer Brian Grazer, Producer of the Year honors from the Producers Guild of America. He also worked as executive producer/second-unit director on Howard’s projects Ransom, EDtv, The Missing and the box-office hit Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Totino first served as cinematographer on Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday and went on to shoot Changing Lanes, starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson. A Clio winner, he has photographed well over 300 TV commercials and music videos, working with such artists as Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, REM, Radiohead and many others.

A native of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, the son of Italian immigrants, Totino was interested in photography at an early age. He began his career as a production assistant on commercials and worked his way through the ranks of the camera department on several television and film projects before becoming a director of photography. Prior to becoming a director of photography, among his credits are the New York portion of Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth, on which he served as a focus puller.

Other shared feature credits include Armed and Dangerous, Pet Sematary and Problem Child. Hanley also co-edited the movies In & Out and Cop and a Half, while Hill served as co-editor on What’s Love Gotta Do With It?

The partners come from decidedly different backgrounds. Hanley is a third-generation editor. His grandfather cut trailers at RKO and his father was an ADR editor at Paramount Studios. Hanley joined Paramount as an apprentice in 1975, working on his first feature, Marathon Man. He subsequently formed an alliance with Bob Kern who worked with Howard on this TV features. This led to Hanley’s work on Night Shift and his association with Hill.

Hill hails from Omaha, Nebraska, where he attended the University of Nebraska. Following college, he relocated to California and applied for membership in several industry guilds, eventually joining the editors’ union. He also began his career working at Paramount as an apprentice editor on Elia Kazan’s final picture, The Last Tycoon. He met Hanley on the studio lot and joined his colleague under Kern’s tutelage.

Following a successful career as a television production designer, where his work included “The Naked Civil Servant” and “Edward and Mrs. Simpson,” for which he received a BAFTA TV Award, Cameron made his debut as a film production designer with The Honorary Consul, based on the Graham Greene novel. He rapidly made a name for himself with films as varied as 1984 with Richard Burton and John Hurt; Trevor Nunn’s Lady Jane; Highlander, with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery; The Fourth Protocol with Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan and Willow, for George Lucas. Cameron’s work has spanned the globe, from the remote corners of Thailand for Air America, to India for The Jungle Book to the West Coast of Ireland for Far and Away to Morocco on Sahara, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Four Feathers and the Czech Republic for Swing Kids, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Shanghai Knights and Van Helsing. In addition, other films include Tomorrow Never Dies and Starship Troopers.

From 1982 through 1988, Orlandi served as an executive with Bob Mackie Originals, having started with the company at its inception. He holds a BFA in drama from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.

Zimmer’s interest in music began early, and after a move from Germany to the U.K., would lead to playing with and producing various bands, including The Buggles, whose “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first music video to ever appear on MTV. But the world of film music was what Zimmer really wanted to be involved with. Not long after meeting established film composer Stanley Myers, the two founded the London-based Lillie Yard Recording Studios together, collaborating on such films as My Beautiful Laundrette.

It was Zimmer’s solo work in 1988’s A World Apart, however, that gained the attention of director Barry Levinson, who then asked Zimmer to score Rain Man, Zimmer’s first American film. Levinson’s instinct was right – the score’s OscarÆ nomination that followed would be the first of seven.

With Zimmer’s subsequent move to Hollywood, he expanded the range of genres he explored, and his first venture into the world of animation, 1994’s The Lion King, brought Zimmer the OscarÆ.

Zimmer’s career has been marked by a unique ability to adeptly move between genres – between smaller films and comedies (such as Driving Miss Daisy, Green Card, True Romance, As Good As It Gets, and Something’s Gotta Give) and big blockbusters (including Crimson Tide, Mission: Impossible 2, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai, The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Batman Begins, and The Da Vinci Code).

In the middle of Zimmer’s unparalleled pace of taking on new projects, his ability to innovate, to re-invent genres is what is perhaps most striking. The film scores Zimmer has done this for speak for themselves, whether it has been for drama in Rain Man, action in Ridley Scott’s Black Rain, historical in Gladiator, war in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, or most recently the dark comic book world of The Dark Knight.

The nine Golden Globe nominations Zimmer has earned in the process haven’t slowed down his pace. In 2008 Zimmer scored six films, including Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar 2, Frost / Nixon, and The Dark Knight.

“ACADEMY AWARDÆ” and “OSCARÆ” are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”

Columbia Pictures

and

Imagine Entertainment

present

A

Brian Grazer

Production

A

John Calley

Production

A

Ron Howard

Film

Tom Hanks

Ewan McGregor

Ayelet Zurer

Stellan SkarsgÂrd

Pierfrancesco Favino

Nikolaj Lie Kaas

and

Armin Mueller-Stahl

Thure Lindhardt

David Pasquesi

Cosimo Fusco

Victor Alfieri

Casting by

Jane Jenkins, CSA

Janet Hirshenson, CSA

Michelle Lewitt, CSA

Casting by

Beatrice Kruger

Debbie McWilliams

Violin Solos by

Joshua Bell

Music by

Hans Zimmer

Associate Producers

Kathleen McGill

Louisa Velis

William M. Connor

Costume Designer

Daniel Orlandi

Visual Effects Supervisor

Angus Bickerton

Film Editors

Dan Hanley, A.C.E. Mike Hill, A.C.E.

Production Designer

Allan Cameron

Director of Photography

Salvatore Totino, ASC

Executive Producers

Todd Hallowell

Dan Brown

Produced by

Brian Grazer

and

Ron Howard

Produced by

John Calley

Based upon the Novel by

Dan Brown

Screenplay by

David Koepp

and

Akiva Goldsman

Directed by

Ron Howard

Cast

Robert Langdon Tom Hanks

Camerlengo Ewan McGregor

Vittoria Vetra Ayelet Zurer

Commander Richter Stellan SkarsgÂrd

Inspector Olivetti Pierfrancesco Favino

Assassin Nikolaj Lie Kaas

Cardinal Strauss Armin Mueller-Stahl

Chartrand Thure Lindhardt

Claudio Vincenzi David Pasquesi

Father Simeon Cosimo Fusco

Lieutenant Valenti Victor Alfieri

Cardinal Lamasse Franklin Amobi

Cardinal Ebner Curt Lowens

Cardinal Guidera Bob Yerkes

Cardinal Baggia Marco Fiorini

Silvano Bentivoglio Carmen Argenziano

Cardinal Yoruba Howard Mungo

Cardinal Beck Rance Howard

Cardinal Colbert Steve Franken

Cardinal Pugini Gino Conforti

Cardinal Petrov Elya Baskin

Conclave Cardinals Richard Rosetti

Silvano Marchetto

Urs Weber Thomas Morris

Adrian Bachman Jonas Fisch

Swiss Guardsmen August Fredrik

Ben Bela Boehm

Paul Schmitz

Swiss Guard Blue Jeff Boehm

Philippe Xavier J. Nathan

American Reporter Steve Kehela

British Reporters Ursula Brooks

Rashmi

Chinese Reporter Yan Cui

French Reporter Fritz Michel

Italian Reporters Maria Cristina Heller

Pascal Petardi

Mexican Reporter Yesenia Adame

Polish Reporter Kristof Konrad

South African Reporter Masasa Moyo

South American Reporter Ed F. Martin

CERN Scientists Cheryl Howard

Endre Hules

Norbert Weisser

Little Girl in Square Shelby Zemanek

Protesters Vanna Salviati

Raffaele DiBlasio

Carabinieri Todd Schneider

Roberto Donati

Rocco Passafaro

Emanuele Secci

Docent Anna Katarina

Tourists James Ritz

Felipe Torres

Stunt Coordinator Brad Martin

Stunts

Todd Schneider Hank Amos

Daniel Arrias Nick Brandon

Eddie Braun Joe Bucaro

Keith Campbell Jim Churchman

Sophia Crawford Shawn Crowder

Zach Duhame Kofi Elam

Paul Eliopoulos Roel Failma

Jimena Ferrante Jim Heisner

Brett Jones Mike Li

Ming Liu Caryn Mower

Noon Orsatti Jim Palmer

Darrin Prescott Tim Rigby

Steve Upton

Unit Production Manager Kathleen McGill

First Assistant Director William M. Connor

Second Assistant Director Kristen Ploucha

2nd Unit Director Todd Hallowell

Visual Effects Producer Barrie Hemsley

Production Supervisor Michelle Brattson

Associate Producer Anna Culp

Supervising Art Director Giles Masters

Art Directors Keith P. Cunningham

Dawn Swiderski

Luke Freeborn

Set Decorator Robert Gould

Property Master Trish Gallaher Glenn

Script Supervisor Sherry Gallarneau

Camera Operator Salvatore Totino, ASC

“A” Camera / Steadicam Operator Andrew Rowlands

First Assistant “A” Camera Dominic Aluisi

Second Assistant “A” Camera Benn Martenson

First Assistant “B” Camera Peter Geraghty

Second Assistant “B” Camera Mark Connelly

Loader Eric Jensch

Assistant Costume Designers Anna Lombardi

Marjorie McCown

Costume Supervisor Helen Monaghan

Key Costumers Daniel Grant North

Leslie Weir

Myron Baker

Costumers Debbie Travis

Hans G. Struhar

Costumer for Mr. Hanks Wyatt Bartlett

Makeup Department Head John Blake

Key Makeup Artists Kim Ayers

Douglas Noe

Joel Harlow

Makeup Artist Nicole Sortillon

Prosthetic Makeup Artists David L. Anderson

Tony Gardner

Kazuhiro Tsuji

Puppeteer Tim Huizing

Hair Department Head Linda Flowers

Key Hair Stylists Mitch Stone

Gloria P. Casny

Hair Stylists Gary J. Perticone

Theraesa Rivers

Gaffer Rafael E. Sanchez

Best Boy Electric Patrick Hoeschen

Rigging Gaffer Rodger Meilink

Rigging Electric Best Boy Kevin Blauvelt

Key Grip J. Michael Popovich

Best Boy Grip John D. Miller

Dolly Grips Hector Gutierrez

Brad Rea

Eugene L. Rivera

Rigging Key Grip Jerry Sandager

Rigging Grip Best Boy Charles Hart

Construction Rigging Grip Donald L. Selsor

Production Mixer Peter J. Devlin, CAS

Boom Operator Michael Piotrowski

Video Assist Operator Richard Scarpone

Video Playback Supervisor Matt Morrissey

Video Engineer Matt Cohen

Special Effects Supervisor Clay Pinney

Special Effects Foremen Joshua Pinney

Bob Riggs

Anthony Centonze

Arnie Verbiesen

Pyrotechnician William Harrison

Special Effects Technicians Thomas Rasada

Josh Neugass

Hans Metz

Chris Jones

R. Michael Bisetti

Location Manager Chris Baugh

Assistant Location Managers Ryan Neary

Jeanie Farnam

Production Coordinator Justin Haut

Assistant Production Coordinators Oscar J. Flores

KB Pugliese

Nick Jordan

Production Secretary Charlotte Rapak

Production Controller Michael Goosen

Production Accountant James DeMarco

1st Assistant Accountant Carlo Pratto

Payroll Accountant Katy Tatian-Genovese

Construction Coordinator Stacey S. McIntosh

General Foreman Jerrold F. Brooks

Head Foreman Terry Nagel

Foremen Annie Jagerman

Jeffrey A. Brooks

Steve Gindorf

Bruce Richter

Christopher J. Rice

Steven E. Fegley

Steve Kallas

Mill Foreman Mike Duffin

Head Labor Foreman Manuel Valenzuela

Head Paint Foreman Richard L. Girod

Head Plaster Foreman Greg Whitfield

Propmaker Foreman Jim Henry

Lead Moldmaker Foreman Edward J. Quinn

Head Sculptor Foreman Martin Smeaton

Sculptors Bob Clark

Kent Allen Jones

Lead Scenic Artist James Gemmill

Standby Greensman Richard Snail

Standby Carpenter George Stokes

Standby Painter Rosemary De Cicco

Construction Accountant Beth Waller

Set Designers Patte Strong-Lord

Jeff Markwith

Art Department Coordinator Candice Muriedas

Senior Researcher Seth Olson

Leadman Cheryl Gould

Buyers Lisa Montesanto

George Hess

On-Set Dresser Eric Rood

Gangboss Dave Gunn

Swing Gang JP Bouquette

Chris Grantz

Rick Staves

Graphic Artists Clint Schultz

Michael Marcus

Illustrator Andrea Dopaso

Storyboard Artists Christopher Glass

Gabriel Hardman

Philip Keller

Michael A. Jackson

Animatic Artists Alex Cannon

John Lee

James Rothwell

Anthony Zierhut

Assistant Property Masters Monica Castro

Tommy Altobello

Erick Garibay

Armorer Terry Atchison

Unit Publicist Rachel Aberly

Still Photographer Zade Rosenthal

2nd Second Assistant Directors Paul Schmitz

Scott R. Meyers

Assistants to Mr. Howard Felipe Torres

Gary Williams

Assistants to Mr. Grazer Danielle Zloto

Leigh Conkling

Assistant to Mr. Calley Erica Hagen

Assistant to Mr. Hallowell Taylor Singer

Assistants to Mr. Hanks Allison Diamond

Sooki Raphael

Production Assistants Kieran Ahern

Nestor Arce

Clinton Childress

Mark Colbert

Rustin Davis

Penelope Franco

Hillary Hendler

Alexander Johnson

Emma Kennelty

Teresa Jolene Lee

Shea Marcus

Lisa McPherson

Anthony Mintos

Andrea Rennard

Jackson Rowe

Francesco Sauta

Kori Sparks

Emily Towers

Amy Venghaus

Casting Assistant Wynne Tsing

Extras Casting by Bill Dance Casting

Dialect Coach Carla Meyer

Religion Technical Advisor Reverend Dominic A. Scolamiero

Illuminati Technical Advisor John Langdon

Military Technical Advisor Nicholas L. Teta

Crowd Support Joe Biggins

Medic Ferguson Reid

Catering by Mario’s Catering

Craft Service Laura Bagano

Monique Drumheller

Cary Hatakeda

Transportation Captain Joel Marrow

Transportation Co-Captain Randy Cantor

Picture Car Coordinator John Armstrong

SECOND UNIT

First Assistant Director Nick Satriano

Second Assistant Director Doug Plasse

Director of Photography Josh Bleibtreu

“A” Camera / Steadicam Operator Gregory Smith

First Assistant “A” Camera Donal Steinberg

Brad Peterman

Second Assistant “A” Camera Mark Gilmer

“B” Camera Operator Patrick O’Brien

First Assistant “B” Camera Nino Neuboeck

Second Assistant “B” Camera Craig M. Bauer

Property Master Steven Husch

Script Supervisor Samantha C. Kirkeby

Key Costumer Jason M. Moore

Key Hair Stylist Michael Moore

Key Makeup Artist Leslie Devlin

Gaffer Brian Tilden

Best Boy Electric James M. McClure

Key Grip Jerry C. Deats

Best Boy Grip Jeffrey Johnson

Dolly Grips Darryl Humber

William Hobson

Production Mixer Phillip Palmer

Boom Operator Patrick Martens

Video Assist Operator John Trunk

Special Effects Supervisor John S. Baker

Special Effects Technician Jason Hansen

Production Coordinator Rhonda George

Assistant Production Coordinator April Novak

Production Assistants Leslie Merlin

Laura Pena

Standby Painter Glenda Mullins

Standby Carpenter John Flaherty

Assistant Propmaster Rachel Flores

On-Set Dressers Phillip Thoman

Patricia Rake

ITALY CREW

Executive Producer Marco Valerio Pugini

Line Producer Ute Leonhardt

Unit Production Manager Fabiomassimo Dell’Orco

Production Managers Luca Fortunato Asquini

Beppe Serra

First Assistant Director Inti Carboni

Second Assistant Director Simonetta Valentini

Art Directors Cinzia Lo Fazio

Roberto Caruso

Set Decorator Cynthia Sleiter

Property Master Federico Ciommo

Costume Supervisor Augusto Grassi

Key Costumer Marco Alzari

Key Makeup Artist Alessandro Bertolazzi

Key Hair Stylist Giorgio Gregorini

Gaffer Francesco Zaccaria

Best Boy Massimiliano Sticchi

Rigging Gaffer Marco Sticchi

Key Grip Tommaso Mele

Best Boy Stefano Di Pasquali

Key Rigging Grip Sergio Gabrielli

Sound Mixer Mervyn Moore

Boom Operator Dan Crowley

Special Effects Supervisor Daniel Acon

Location Managers Antongiulio Dell’Orco

Stefano Biraghi

Production Office Coordinator Mona Bernal

Assistant Production Coordinator Willy Faso

Production Secretary Federica Durigon

Stunt Coordinator Franco Maria Salamon

Military Technical Consultant GiosuË Arcuri

Extras Casting Maurizio Cusano

ITALY CREW - SECOND UNIT

Unit Production Managers Sam Breckman

Diego Cavallo

Unit Manager Luciano Tito

First Assistant Director Davide Sacchetti

Second Assistant Director Francesco Civita

Property Master Tonino Motolese

Camera Operator Vincenzo Carpineta

First Assistant “B” Camera Maurizio Cremisini

Second Assistant “B” Camera Emiliano Bambusi

Key Costumer Bruno De Santa

Makeup/Hair Coordinator Carla Vicenzino

Gaffer Daniele Verdenelli

Best Boy Electric Fabio De Meis

Rigging Gaffer Simone Lucchetti

Key Grip Carlo Postiglione

Best Boy Grip Marcello Troiani

Dolly Grip Massimo Rinella

Sound Mixer Angelo Bonanni

Video Assist Mauro Toscano

Production Coordinators Victoria Hawden

Alessandro Ruggeri

U.K. CREW

Unit Production Manager Chris Thompson

Production Coordinator Elaine Burt

Art Directors Peter Russell

Alex Cameron

Set Decorator Richard Roberts

Property Master David Balfour

Construction Manager Ray Barrett

HOD Carpenter Trevor Dyer

HOD Plasterer Paul Tappin

Special Effects Supervisor Dominic Tuohy

POST PRODUCTION

Additional Editor Robert Komatsu

Assistant Editors Carolyn Calvert

Jacquelyn Dean

Visual Effects Editor Catherine Chase

Post Production Coordinator Mindy Weissman

Supervising Sound Mixers Tom Fleischman

Greg P. Russell

Supervising Sound Editor Chic Ciccolini III

Assistant Sound Editors Lynn Sable

Melissa Lytle

Katherine Miller

Sound Designer Daniel Pagan, M.P.S.E.

Sound Effects Editors Rickley W. Dumm, M.P.S.E.

Ryan McBride

Dialogue Editors Teri E. Dorman

Erin Oakley

Jim Matheny

Supervising ADR Editor Deborah Wallach

ADR Editor Linda Folk

ADR Mixer Howard London, C.A.S.

Foley Supervisor Solange S. Schwalbe, M.P.S.E.

Foley Editors David Barnaby

John Chalfant

Foley Artists Gary Hecker

Michael Broomberg

Foley Mixer Mike Marino

Re-Recordist Dan Sharp

Voice Casting by Lynne Redding

Post Sound Services Provided by Sony Pictures Studios

Culver City, California

Music Supervision by Bob Badami

Additional Music by Lorne Balfe

Atli ÷rvarsson

Ambient Music Design Mel Wesson

Orchestrator Bruce Fowler

Music Arranged by Julian Kershaw

Music Editor Daniel Pinder

Guitar Heitor Pereira

Cello Martin Tillman

Percussionists Satnam Ramgotra

Ryeland Allison

Music Conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith

Score Mixer Alan Meyerson

Sequencer Programming Thomas Broderick

Peter Oso Snell

Technical Assistant Andrew Kawczynski

Music Preparation Booker White

Orchestra Contractor Peter Rotter

Music Coordinators Steven Kofsky

Andrew Zack

Choral Consultant Paul Salamunovich

Digital Intermediate by EFILM

DI Producer Christian Prejza

Digital Colorist Steve Bowen

End Titles by Brainstorm Digital

Negative Cutter Mo Henry

Visual Effects

Visual Effects Production Manager Monette Dubin

Visual Effects Coordinators Toby White

Matthew A. Rubin

Simona De Angelis

VFX Lead Data Wrangler/Coordinator Holly E. R. Gosnell

Visual Effects Data Wranglers Viet Luu

Andrea Papaleo

Visual Effects Editor Kevin Ahern

Visual Effects Assistant Editor Chris J. Hunter

Visual Effects Art Directors Aaron Haye

Su Whitaker

Digital Artists Duncan Kinnaird

Neil Culley

Paul Tuersley

Robin Huffer

Adam Gascoyne

Sean H. Farrow

Visual Effects by Double Negative

VFX Supervisor Ryan Cook

VFX Producer Fay McConkey

2D Supervisor Victor Wade

3D Supervisor Graham Jack

Line Producer Kim Phelan

Production Coordinator Rob Shears

Model Lead Alison Wortman

Modellers David Lebrun

Jon Capleton

Dominic Carus

Jason Hue

Tom Griffiths

Graham Hudson

Steven Moore

Animation Supervisor Aysha Madina

Previs Artists Elizabeth Gray

Nigel Rafter

FX Lead Nicholas New

FX TDs Viktor Rietveld

Kari Brown

Timo-Pekko Nieminen

Michael Parker

Sotiris Georghiou

John Sparks

Mick Harper

Michael Gaiser

Georg Kaltenbrunner

Adrien Lourdelle

Lighting Lead Jeremy Hardin

Lighting TDs Noel Hocquet

Mattias Engstrom

Rhys Salcombe

Steven Godfrey

Robert Deas

Stephen Borneman

Jenni Eynon

Azzard Gordon

Christopher Anciaume

Eugene Lipkin

Ken Fanning

Daniel Smollan

Laetitia Gabrielli

Stephen Thornhill

Crowd TDs Simon Kay

Dan Kripac

Ziah Fogel

Gavin Harrison

Greg King

Christoph Ammann

Crowd Coding Kevin O’Connor

Hair and Cloth James Reid

Mark Spevick

Texture Artists Negin Bairami

Alban Orlhiac

Phil Young

Rigging Robert Helms

Lars Johansson

Lead Compositors Isaac Layish

Christine Wong

John Galloway

Paul Raeburn

Compositors Sharon Warmington

Sanju Travis

Adrian Banton

Shahin Toosi

Kia Coates

Charlotte Merrill

Claire Inglis

Martin Mueller

James Foster

Ana Mestre

Paul Scott

Roto/Paint Niki Turpin

Will Martindale

Richard Collis

Sonny Pye

Tom Luff

Tom Middleton

Lead Matte Painter Christoph Unger

Matte Painter Neil Miller

Matchmove Supervisor Pery McCafferty

Matchmoving Andrew Tulloch

Effandi Mohamed

Daniel Pastore

Marcello Da Silva

Eric Tsui

Robert Brumby

Daniel Baldwin

Tom Burton

Alistair Darby

Chris Hart

Daniel Nicholson

VFX Editor Stuart Nelhams

R&D Ian Masters

Oliver James

Stephen Sutcliffe

Systems & Operations Pete Hanson

Miles Drake

Visual Effects by CIS Vancouver

VFX Supervisor Mark Breakspear

VFX Producer Chris Anderson

VFX Coordinator Steve Won

VFX Production Supervisor Dennis Hoffman

Executive Producer Shauna Bryan

Digital Production Supervisor Jason Dowdeswell

Head of 3D and Technology Peter Bowmar

CG Supervisor Karen Ansel

Model Lead Dan Mayer

CG Artists Alan Hernandez Ayestaran

Earl Paraszczynec

Christian Edmond

Adele Ng

Peter D. Hunt

Peter Fiala

Pipeline TD Kym Watts

Matte Artist Romain Bayle

Development Artist Marco Iozzi

Texture Painters Juan Pablo Allgeier

Julien Stuart Smith

Wes Sargent

Head of 2D Christine Petrov

Composite Supervisor Martyn Culpitt

Compositors Stephen James

Tiago Santos

Tom McHattie

John Cairns

Simon Ager

Noel Wright

Thierry Muller

Lionel Heath

Graeme Baitz

VFX Editor Adam Estey

DFX Colourist Zane Harker

Roto Jessica Wan

Julie Hebb

Matchmove Peter Hart

Sam Nixon

Reika Nishio

Digital Production Manager Kristin Dearholt

Production Manager Jinnie Pak

Data Management Reily McDougall

Curtis Tsai

Systems Administration Ronald Knol

Chi Pham

Joe De Michelis

Grant Bowen

Robin T. Lee

Justin Rosen

Ronald Siy

Visual Effects by The Moving Picture Company

Visual Effects Supervisor Richard Stammers

Visual Effects Producer Fiona Foster

CG Supervisor Kevin T. Hahn

Compositing Supervisor Richard W. Baker

Executive Producer Christian Roberton

Visual Effects Coordinator Joe Carhart

Lead Concept Artist Virginie Bourdin

Concept Artists Levente Peterffy

Olivier Pron

Researcher James Kelly

Assets Lead Elliot Newman

Layout Lead Stanley Dellimore

CG Artists Andrew Baggarley

Arnaud Valette

Ileana Stravoskiadi

Jeremy Berruel

Matteo Stirati

Richard Clegg

Sweekim Lai

Previs Thomas Dow

Stephen Wong

Sally Wilson

Digital Environments Lead Vlad Holst

Digital Environment Artists Chishan Liu

Robin Delidique

Zoran Arizanovic

Effects Lead Niall Flinn

Effects Artists Mathieu Chardonnet

Xavier Lestourneaud

Digital Compositing Artists Abigail Scollay

Alasdair McNeil

Izet Buco

Jon van Hoey Smith

Lionel Heath

Malcolm Souter

Marco Fiorani Parenzi

Rachel Wright

Reuben Bartaki

Richard Little

Scott Taylor

Vaibhav Marathe

Roto / Prep Supervisor Christine Troianello

Roto / Prep Coordinator Lorna Dumba

Roto / Prep Lead Fani Vassiadi

Roto / Prep Antonio Meazzini

Javad Matoorian Pour

Leo Needlands

Richard Baillie

Ryan Mullany

Scott Patton

Sophie Marfleet

Will Fullager

Matchmove Supervisor Jigesh Gajjar

Matchmove Lead Anthony Abejuro

Matchmove Coordinator James Purdy

Matchmove Oliver Hearsey

Suzie Askham

Visual Effects Editors Aled Robinson

Chris Coupland

Craig Sheppard

Software Development & Support Jonathan Peel

Mark Streatfield

Matthew Hunt

Richard Helliwell

Steve Wright

Visual Effects by The Senate VFX

VFX Supervisor Richard Higham

VFX Producer Paula Pope

VFX Executive Producer Sarah Hemsley

VFX Coordinator Edward Randolph

CG Supervisor Daniel Canfora

Digital Matte Painter Doug Winder

CG Artists Robin Konieczny

Stuart Rowbottom

Andrew MacLeod

Claire Pegorier

John Roberts-Cox

Andrew Ramos

Digital Compositors Simon Leech

Natalie MacDonald

Andrew Fletcher

Dominique Fiore

Mike Pope

Edward Sharp

Gareth Repton

Campbell Rose

Loraine Cooper

Sule Bryan

Donal Nolan

Ben Perrott

Anton Yri

Oliver Armstrong

Luan Hall

Jamie Wong

Stephen Tew †

Systems & Operations Craig Allison

Samantha Spacey

Daniel Reeves

Gordon Milner

Visual Effects Model Unit

First Assistant Director Micky Finch

Art Director Phil Sims

Camera Operator Karl Morgan

Motion Control Supervisor Ian Menzies

Gaffer Jack White

Key Grip Steve Morgan

HOD Rigger Danny Webster

Model Construction by Mattes and Miniatures

Miniature Supervisor Leigh Took

Senior Model Makers Bob Ballan

Jason Chalmers

Steven Scott

Peter Seymour-Howell

Richard Thomas

Lead Model Maker Neil Damman

Lead Sculptor Wesley W. Harland

Mechanical Engineer Simon Ford

Filmed in part at Sony Pictures Studios

Culver City, California

Soundtrack on Sony Classical

MUSIC

“Gregorian Chant: Requiem Aeternam-Introitus (VI)”

from “Liturgia Defunctorum, Missae Pro Defunctis”

Traditional

Performed by Schola of the Hofburgkapelle, Vienna

Hubert Dopf S.J.

Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited

Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

“Introitus” from “Lux Aeterna”

Written by Morten Lauridsen

© 2009 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., is the author of this film

(motion picture) for the purpose of copyright and other laws.

Italy Production Services provided by Panorama Films

Regione Lazio logo used with permission.

Use of Canal+ logo courtesy of Canal+ France

Use of the CNN logo courtesy of Cable News Network, Inc.

A Time Warner Company

All Rights Reserved.

Computer Map courtesy of © Tele Atlas

Special Thanks to

Comune di Roma

Arma dei Carabinieri

MIBAC – S.BB.A.P.P.S.A.E Caserta

Film Commission Regione Campania

Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali del Comune di Roma

CERN - The European Laboratory for Particle Physics

James Gillies

Mike Lamont

Brioni

Damiani

Elizabeth Lev

Robert Zajonc

Camera Systems by Clairmont

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and locations portrayed
and the names herein are fictitious, and any similarity to or identification
with the location, name, character or history of any person, product
or entity is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

American Humane monitored some of the animal action.

No animals were harmed in those scenes. (AHAD 01312)

This motion picture photoplay is protected pursuant to the provisions
of the laws of the United States of America and other countries.
Any unauthorized duplication and/or distribution of this
photoplay may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.