Like its predecessor, “The Da Vinci Code”, which created a tourism frenzy in Scotland and France, "Angels and Demons" already has tourists flocking to Rome, Italy. All this week, Ellen has been recapping her recent Rome Field Trip which is blessedly free of any "Angels and Demons" mentions. But we understand that there are some of you out there who need to retrace Robert Langdon's steps across the Eternal City.

But if you care less about where the movie is supposed to take place and more about where it was actually filmed, then you’re better off catching the next flight to Los Angeles then a flight to Rome. Most of the film was actually made on a sound stage in L.A., thanks to the Catholic Church’s hatred for all things Dan Brown. ]]> cmb 2009-05-15T13:42:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/4/29/192456/142

Who knew one man's horrible haircut could cast such a long shadow? Tom Hanks may have shed his greasy "professorial" mop from "The Da Vinci Code", but with posters for "Angels & Demons" suddenly appearing on the sides of buses everywhere, we fear for not only our own souls, but also for the soul of Rome, the city in which we are informed the movie is set.

The prequel features "symbologist" Robert Langdon running around making Secret Connections to everything, and was written to take place largely in the Vatican. Despite the Church banning director Ron Howard from filming in Vatican City, "Angels & Demons" tours have been springing up all over the place as local operators take advantage of American tourists' willingness to believe anything as long as they read it in a paperback thriller. We haven't read the book yet, so we've crossed these kind of adventures off our list... but what to replace them with?]]> egw 2009-04-30T11:41:50-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/30/163810/75

The trailer for the film "Angels and Demons" just came out, and you'd think they'd actually shot it in Vatican City. But Ron Howard's cast and crew were locked out of the Holy See because church officials didn't really care for "The Da Vinci Code."

Instead, a mock-up St. Peter's Square was built in LA for filming. Producers also got access to the super-swanky Royal Palace in Caserta, Italy to use as a stand-in for interior shots.

Real Vatican or not, there's no doubt that the film will inspire a new batch of movie tourists, eager to see the place that the Illuminati are supposedly trying to destroy with antimatter. The film opens May 15, 2009.

Related Stories:
· Vatican City Is Rebuilt in LA [Telegraph]
· Vatican Bans Da Vinci Code Sequel [Telegraph]
· Movie Travel coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-10-30T16:38:10-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/17/21148/7383

Hey, remember those awesome scenes in "The Da Vinci Code" where Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu went into a church and discovered "Jesus" could be her middle name? (It was something like that.) Well, hope you enjoyed those sweeping Ron Howard shots, because the Vatican is cracking down on filming requests for the Dan Brown prequel "Angels and Demons."

When the Catholic Church was unable to kill the best-selling thriller and the train of books that followed it, it struck back by blocking Tom Hanks and Howard from shooting inside two Rome churches, Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria, which supposedly figure prominently into the plot of "Angels and Demons."

(We've never read it, but we assume it takes Langdon the symbologist from idyllic desert childhood to kill-happy atheist. It's a prequel, after all!)

Church cooperation or no, look for "Angels and Demons" to hit theaters sometime in 2009, with new costars Ewan McGregor as a Vatican hotshot and Ayelet Zurer ("Vantage Point," "Munich") as the requisite hot-lady scientist.

Related Stories:
· Movie Set Travel: "The Da Vinci Code" [Jaunted]
· Vatican Bans Tom Hanks from Filming in Churches [ICYDK]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Defamer]]]> egw 2008-06-18T10:00:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/