Like Langdon, I always want to win: Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks's Angels and Demons releases this Friday. After the controversy of its prequel, The Da Vinci Code, the actor tells Debarati Palit that he hopes this film gets a green signal

Like Langdon, I always want to win: Tom Hanks

After the phenomenal success of The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks returns on the silver screen with the much awaited Angels and Demons this Friday. The prequel revolves around Robert Langdon, the hero who finds that ancient forces will stop at nothing, even murder, to reach their goals. MiD DAY reporter Debarati Palit speaks to Hanks via e-mail about the film, characters and even Bollywood.

POSTER BOY: Tom Hanks believes his character in Angels and Demons is more dynamic than The Da Vinci Code. PIC/AFP

There is a lot of excitement around the release of Angels and Demons across the globe?
You can describe it better in terms of what you look and feel about the movie around you, my dear friend...I want to share the response what we are getting from across the world its phenomenal, and critics appreciated this movie too despite the last one. We held the world premiere of Angels and Demons at Rome in Italy and then Japan premiere in Tokyo and the feedback received was fantabulous. People were waiting in long queues just to have a glimpse of the cast and crew. The love and affection what we got can't be explained in just words.u00a0

We are on a spree these days to promote our film and I am happy that people are eagerly waiting for the visual adaptation of yet another masterpiece of Dan Brown. My character is more dynamic in this movie as compared to the static Robert Langdon of Da Vinci Code.u00a0

How much do you identify with the character of Robert Langdon?u00a0
Like Langdon, I love a game of logic that can only be solved with a combination of lateral thinking and knowledge of the facts.u00a0 Like Langdon, I always want to win.u00a0 Unlike Langdon, I'm usually in third or fourth place. Ha ha ha J that differentiates me from Robert.

Da Vinci Code ran into problems in India, what do you think the reaction is going to be this time around?
I don't know much about this but I envisage that some controversy is unavoidable regardless to any movie. Although it's important to remember that Angels & Demons is primarily a thriller -a chase and a love story. So I hope that audiences in that continent would react in very optimistic way and be delighted with our efforts. I am just hoping that the film gets a Green signal across the world and each critic must watch it atleast once for the sake of true efforts put in by our whole team.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

You seem to have got stuck with Dan Brown's stories. Is it the plot or the character that has captured your imagination?u00a0u00a0
Ha Ha... Why do you think so? I am glad that Dan and Ron consider me as a right choice this time too for Robert Langdon...well this question is something very debating kind of, it would be wrong to say that am stuck to Dan Brown stories because first I love playing Robert Langdon, second the central idea is always the same in both novels: a sect versus the church, even though the parts of the good and the bad are distributed differently, this time, with 'Angels & Demons,' the church is on the side of the good guys. Each time there is something new to it so I think it's their trust that gets me back to this particular character... What's so great about a Robert Langdon adventure is that it stimulates so much curiosity and research.

Both the plot and the character matter a lot. It's just that if I find the roles very alluring and avaricious with my genus of acting so I approve them, the character is very powerful and one of the reasons that I'm interested in Robert Langdon is that he sees history as layered, he is so swaying that I am always ready to be a component of it.u00a0

If reports are to be believed you are in talks for the third 'Da Vinci film?
Right now, it's too early to comment on it.u00a0

Your take on Bollywood movies and would you accept any projects offered to you?u00a0
To be candid, I have not seen any Bollywood Movies till or round the corner, so it would be prejudice on my part to remark on them rather the world of cinema is not bound to any demographics now. So the scope for any artist is endless.u00a0

Your future projects?
I am lending my voice for Woody in Toy story 3, then am doing Boone's Lick by Barry Levinson. I am even reading a couple of appealing scripts. Apart from these scripts I have signed a live-action feature based on the vintage Mattel toy Major Matt Mason where in I am playing Major Matt Mason, who is an astronaut who lived and worked on the moon. It was my childhood dream that seems to be true at last as I wanted to be an astronaut but didn't have the mathematics even though I am a member of the National Space Society.u00a0
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Plot of the movie
In Angels and Demons, Robert Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati the most powerful underground organization in history. He now faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization's most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican's only hope for survival.

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