Where to watch Angels & Demons (2009)

Trivia & production notes

• The Writers Guild strike forced filming to be delayed from February 2008 to June 2008, which meant the original December 2008 release date was pushed to May 2009.
• Ron Howard decided to position Angels & Demons as a direct sequel rather than a prequel to The Da Vinci Code, feeling that audiences would already be familiar with Robert Langdon from the first film.
• Producer Brian Grazer felt the adaptation of The Da Vinci Code was too reverent and stagey, so for Angels & Demons they emphasized action and movement rather than expository dialogue.
• David Koepp rewrote the script before shooting began on the film.
• Filming began in Rome under the fake working title Obelisk, with only three weeks of exterior location shooting scheduled before the anticipated Screen Actors Guild strike.
• The production designer rebuilt St. Peter's Basilica's interior at 80 feet tall on a soundstage, surrounding it with a 360-degree greenscreen to digitally complete the church's interior.
• To recreate the Sistine Chapel, production staff photographed the chapel's interior from multiple angles while posing as tourists, then artists enlarged the photographs to create detailed recreations of the paintings and mosaics.
• Production designer Allan Cameron chose to depict the Sistine Chapel as it appeared before its fresco restoration, preferring how the formerly smoky, muted tones would contrast with the vivid red of the cardinals' vestments.
• Tom Hanks paused filming to help an Australian bride named Natalia Dearnley navigate through crowds to reach her wedding on time.
• Because the Roman Catholic Church found The Da Vinci Code offensive and prohibited filming in their churches, Vatican interior scenes were shot at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City instead.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Angels & Demons (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.