The start of filming for the highly anticipated sequel to “The Da Vinci Code” has been postponed until the strike by the Writers Guild of America is resolved. “Da Vinci” star Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard were ready to start filming on “Angels & Demons” early next year and Sony Pictures had wanted to release the film one year from now during the holiday season in 2008 . Unfortunately the screenplay for the film is not yet up to everyone’s satisfaction and Akiva Goldsman, the film’s screenwriter, cannot work on revisions until the strike is concluded. That has forced Sony to pull the plug on the start of filming and reshuffle the movie’s release date to May 2009. It might have to be changed again if the WGA strike goes on longer. The three week old strike has crippled Hollywood productions and only those movies which have screenplays that don’t need any major changes can be filmed at this time. “Angels & Demons” is the first big budget production that has had to curtain its schedule due to the strike.

Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are going to do a sequel to their 2006 blockbuster “The Da Vinci Code” but it will be based on an earlier novel called “Angels & Demons”. Novelist Dan Brown wrote this first adventure of symbologist Robert Langdon four years before the character found international fame in “Da Vinci” and since there is no sequel to the latter book at the present time Howard is going one step back in the past to base his second movie on.

“Angels & Demons” will see Langdon called to a Swiss research facility to try and uncover why an ancient symbol was seared into the chest of a scientist. As Langdon investigates the mystery he discovers a plot against the Vatican organized by a shadowy underground network that is called the Illuminati.

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman is trying to finish the screenplay before a writers strike is scheduled to hit Hollywood on November 1. Howard wants to start filming “Angels & Demons” in the new year and have it in theaters next December.