Tom Hanks, Ron Howard again team up to make Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’

FLORENCE, Italy — There was one very important thing “Inferno” director Ron Howard wanted to accomplish as he adapted his third Dan Brown novel for the big screen. That was to give audiences a film that did not require knowledge of Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” or “Angels & Demons” books — both made into movies by Howard.

Sitting down recently with the Sun-Times in the historic Fort Belvedere overlooking Florence, Howard stressed, “We don’t even think of these films as a franchise — outside of the fact it’s Tom Hanks playing Robert Langdon, and there are these cool Dan Brown components. Yes, there is that Brown combination of a mystery and the path of clues he loves to lay out, but this film does stand alone.”

The key thing here, Howard noted, is that unlike in his earlier two Brown-inspired films, the central crisis here “is not in the past. It’s not about theology or history requiring flashbacks, but it’s about overpopulation affecting us today and especially tomorrow. It’s a contemporary story all the way, and I think that gives it a kind of extra energy. For me, it’s suggestive of a more contemporary cinematic style as well.”

The antagonist in “Inferno” (played by Ben Foster) advocates release of a deadly virus killing millions as a demented solution to overpopulation. “If policy makers and society at large are unwilling to face [the overpopulation issue], or are afraid to face it, that would create a political vacuum. And anytime those vacuums exist, people can rush in with very extreme solutions. That was one of the undercurrents of this story.”

When asked what he loves about the Langdon character and why Hanks is the perfect actor to portray him, Howard did not hesitate.

“I love that Langdon is the hero of these mystery thrillers, and yet the solution to the mystery never comes from the barrel of a gun. That’s pretty unique. That’s remarkable. It’s a little bit of a modern version of Sherlock Holmes. … I love the fact that Tom Hanks loves playing him. Tom Hanks is perfect casting. In real life, Tom has that curiosity like Langdon does. He also has that intellect and humanity. He’s a very moral, principled guy. … He shares all that with Langdon and really makes that character come to life.”

As for Hanks, he analyzed Langdon a bit differently. “He’s a symbologist. He’s a guy who’s fascinated by the constant solving of puzzles. He’s always been that way. He has this exchange in the film with Dr. Sienna Brooks: ‘You were a weird kid? Yeah, I was a weird kid too. I was alone and thinking about stuff that nobody ever bothered with.’

“So, he always has something to do. That’s one reason I love playing Professor Robert Langdon — because his mind sees things that nobody else sees. He’s searching out patterns. He’ll see a symbol and he’ll be able to go back through all of history to explain how it came to have the meaning it has today, and its importance to society. He’s always the smartest guy in the room. That’s why he’s always called upon to solve those problems that no one else can.”

For Hanks’ co-star Felicity Jones, the chance to play Dr. Brooks let her do something few actresses can tackle in a thriller/adventure kind of film.

“When I read the script, Sienna really leapt off the page for me, because she’s not the typical female lead in these kinds of movies. You know, the beautiful woman simply being dragged along the streets by the leading male character. In this film, she is the one doing the dragging and driving the action.”

Jones smiled as she reflected on being back in Florence, where a good deal of the movie was shot — along with Budapest, Venice and Istanbul.

“When I think back to being in Florence, I loved that this was a film where you suddenly have to talk about Italian art history — and sound like you know what you’re talking about. Then, in the next minute, you’re running along the streets and you’re being chased by a drone!

“It does make for a very unusual filmmaking experience — to say the very least!”