Trivia
This movie became the first big-screen casualty of the Hollywood writer's strike in 2007, because Akiva Goldsman's script still needed work, and he was on strike with the Writers Guild of America. So, production of the movie had to be postponed.
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The production had to build a scale replica of St. Peter's Square since Vatican officers banned the movie from being filmed in its grounds.
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Although the novel upon which this film is based is set before the events of the novel "The Da Vinci Code", the film has been written as a sequel to follow after events in The Da Vinci Code.
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Thure Lindhardt was nearly cast as Silas in The Da Vinci Code. Ron Howard liked his audition so much that he offered him the role of Chartrand in this movie.
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As well as providing the voice over for the film's teaser trailer (using an American accent) Alfred Molina (who played Aringarosa in the previous movie The Da Vinci Code) provides the opening voice over for Angels & Demons, this time in his native English accent.
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Ron Howard has said in interviews he plans on completing a Robert Langdon trilogy by filming the next story in the series, "The Lost Symbol."
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Ewan McGregor's character in the book was an Italian named Carlo Ventresca. the name was changed to Camerlengo Patrick McKenna for the movie to reflect McGregor's obvious lack of Italian heritage.
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Clint Eastwood expressed interest in directing the film, but Ron Howard was contractually obligated to it because of his contract from The Da Vinci Code.
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Ayelet Zurer didn't read the book till after finishing on the film. She felt her portrayal was identical to Brown's character.
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Leonardo DiCaprio turned down the role of Camerlengo Patrick McKenna. He declined despite being offered the role personally by Tom Hanks.
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During filming in Rome, the crew and equipment were blocking the passage of a bridal party on its way to the church for a wedding. Upon discovering this situation, Tom Hanks personally escorted the party through the filming area and rallied the crew to remove the obstacles in the way. After the bride was delivered to the church (on time), her grateful family invited Hanks and director Ron Howard to stay for the wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, Hanks and Howard's busy filming schedule prevented them from accepting the offer.
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In the previous film, Langdon remarks to Sophie Neuveu that perhaps she cured his claustrophobia by laying her hands upon him. It appears that she did so indeed, as in this movie Langdon is twice confined in a small, glass room with poor ventilation and seems un-fazed. He also seems fine when he needs to squeeze through a small alley between two very close walls in his search for the bomb.
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When the camera pans around the heads of the apostles in St. Peter's Square, one of the apostles looks very much like Ron Howard.
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Several cameos can be seen in the movie. A photo of Sophie Neveu (played by Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code) stands on a shelf at Langdon's house. Ron Howard's wife, Cheryl Howard, plays a CERN scientist and his father Rance Howard plays a cardinal.
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The 'God particle' referred to in the movie is the Higgs-Boson particle, theorized in 1963-64. The LHC in Geneva is indeed seeking out the nature of this particle, which is claimed to give mass to all matter in the Universe.
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At the very beginning where the Colombia Girl is standing holding aloft the torch, it flickers like the anti-matter.
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As with the other two films in the trilogy, author Dan Brown named main character Robert Langdon after John Langdon, a close friend and typography master who worked with Brown on ambigram designs for his book, "Angels And Demons", as well as the films. John Langdon also designed an ambigram that was used in the movie Monkeyshine.
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When Langdon is in his office speaking with the Vatican employee, you can see a "Phillips Exeter Academy" flag on the wall. Phillips Exeter is the school where Angels & Demons author Dan Brown taught and once attended, located in New Hampshire, and where Langdon is written to have attended in the novels.
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The final piece before the end credits is Dr. Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna: Introitus" - Dr. Lauridsen has never before allowed this piece to be used in a movie before due to the context being inappropriate to his meaning behind the piece.
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Ewan McGregor suggested to Ron Howard that he could do the sequence where the Carlamengo tells the cardinals about the Illuminati entirely without breaking it into several segments as felt that he could pull it off having known all of his lines there. Howard agreed to his suggestion and proceeded to film it. The take was very good, much to the applause of everyone that it was the only one shot and used in the final film.
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The set for St. Peter's Square was re-dressed to serve as the Piazza Navona, home of the Fountain of the Four Rivers.
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Many of the sets were a combination of physical set pieces and green screens with the backgrounds to be digitally added later. This technique was used for scenes that the crew was unable to film at either due to the volume of tourists, or because the Church denied them permission.
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Crew members visited Vatican City as tourists and extensively photographed the city to capture as much detail as possible, knowing they were unlikely to be allowed to film there, so that they could recreate the sets as faithfully as possible.
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