Angels & Demons gets delayed due to writers strike

Angels & Demons has become the latest project to suffer from the writers strike following an announcement from Sony that it had postponed production on the Columbia Pictures' film. Tom Hanks - © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos

Tom Hanks - © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR PhotosSony said Friday the film’s screenplay by Akiva Goldsman (who is adapting the Dan Brown novel) was not ready to for shooting, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter.Sony spokesman Steve Elzer stated in The Hollywood Reporter: "while the filmmakers and the studio feel the screenplay is very strong, we do not believe it is the fully realized production draft required of this ambitious project.” He also said Song did not expect any other films on the 2008 slate to be affected.The film will see Tom Hanks stepping back into the role of Robert Langdon and Ron Howard returning to the director’s chair for the project. The two men teamed to bring Brown’s massively successful The Da Vinci Code to the screen in 2006. Angels & Demons is the latest film to get thrown into limbo due to the strike – which is causing filming schedules to shift, and directors and actors to abandon films. In addition to this film, Columbia's spy thriller Edwin A. Salt (which has Tom Cruise attached) has been pushed back due to director Terry George leaving the project. Director Michael Mann is rumored to be eyeing the project, but wants a rewrite on the script – which can’t be done while there is a writers strike. Angels & Demons was scheduled to start production in early 2008 with a targeted release date of Dec. 19, 2008. With the postponement, the film’s release date has been pushed back to May 15, 2009. The new date will see the film released a week before James Cameron’s 3-D film Avatar hits theaters for Fox.