9.15.09 – Dan Brown’s long-awaited novel, “The Lost Symbol”, has finally been released today with a record number of 5 million copies in its first print. Curious how that was possibly accomplished? You might even be wondering how these hardbound books are produced in the first place. Enjoy the video.

Here is Good Morning America’s coverage of the release:

The official Doubleday site for “The Lost Symbol” can be found here, where you can pre-order the novel through various websites as well as follow Dan Brown on Twitter and Facebook.

“The Lost Symbol” hits bookstores on September 15th, 2009.

5 millions copies of “The Lost Symbol” are set to be released by Doubleday Books on September 15, 2009.

THE LOST SYMBOL

…not “The Solomon Key” as we had all long anticipated.  With almost 5 years of delays, a soaring amount of hype that followed shortly after The Da Vinci Code’s epidemic popularity, and the multitude of speculative books assuming “The Solomon Key” as the book’s title, it really does come as little surprise that author Dan Brown has simply retitled the work.  Despite the lack of details concerning the book’s storyline, we do know that Brown has spent an awful lot of time researching Washington D.C.’s Masonic temples and that the author is very much obsessed with the Freemasons.

The 3rd in a series of conspiracy thriller novels following Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol will be published by Doubleday in the U.S. and Canada on September 15th, 2009.  5 million copies are scheduled to be printed.  This was announced today by Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.  Mehta commented with the following:

This is a great day for readers and booksellers.  The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait.

Jason Kaufman, who is Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday as well as Brown’s longtime editor, said:

Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan’s readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises.

Brown added:

This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey.  Weaving five years of research into the story’s twelve-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine.

Columbia Pictures is also moving forward with The Lost Symbol, which will be the third film in the series.  Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are expected to return.

Angels & Demons, the second installment, hits theaters May 15th.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Tom Hanks doesn’t have a mullet in this one and the movie actually makes sense.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzLmBnwwp6w]

Remember that contest held a few years back by Google when “The Da Vinci Code” was released?  This time around, MSN is hosting a contest for “Angels & Demons” roughly structured in the same way.  The “Path of Illumination Contest” – which just began January 30 – will occur in 2 rounds and a final tie-breaker round leading up to the film’s May release.  Each round will offer a series of 4 challenges released in stages.  Here’s a clear rundown:

The “Path of Illumination Contest” can be found at the official “Angels & Demons” site here: http://www.angelsanddemons.com

It will require you to download Microsoft’s Photosynth as well as sign up for a Windows Live ID (Hotmail and MSN e-mail addresses will work).

*As Round 1 has come to an end, Round 2 begins on March 6.  To remind contestants of the next phase of the contest, Microsoft has sent out the following e-mail:

Congratulations! You are one of only 3,497 contestants from the United States to advance to Round Two of the Angels & Demons Path of Illumination Contest. Don’t turn back now – victory could be within reach!

In Round Two, you must solve four new puzzles. All Round Two puzzles will be available beginning at 10:00 AM PT on March 6, 2009, and must be completed by 9:59 AM PT on March 13, 2009, so mark your calendar!

Unlike Round One, you will have only ONE chance to play each puzzle in Round Two and your score will be automatically submitted for the contest.

Remember, if you have the lowest combined score from Round One and Round Two, you will become the potential country winner, and will receive a trip for two to Rome to attend the premiere of Angels & Demons and more.

Sign in to play at http://angelsanddemons.msn.com

Microsoft respects your privacy. To learn more, please read our online Privacy Statement (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=74170).

Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052

Stuck?  Believe me, after playing through “The Da Vinci Code Contest”, I know from experience that these puzzles do become progressively challenging and players will most definitely need help. 

We are opening the comments board below for open discussion.  Send in any questions or comments you have and feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

“Angels & Demons” hits theaters May 15, 2009.

Looks like Columbia Pictures is catching on to the viral marketing trend for the film.  During the teaser trailer, when the rotating “Illuminati” ambigram first appears, you’ll notice the following text: A L T A R S O F S C I E N C E.  Heading over to http://www.altarsofscience.com, you’ll find a ticking time bomb aka a canister of highly unstable dark matter nestled somewhere within the confines of the Vatican.  While you may not be able to see the text in the video below, here is a clearer picture:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbK-r651sNI]

Months earlier, it was reported that film crews had been banned from shooting in locales such as the Vatican as Church officials claimed that the novel’s material did not agree with religious sentiment.  Producer, Brian Grazer, made the following key comments regarding “The Da Vinci Code”‘s reception and what we can expect from “Angels & Demons”:

“I think we may have been too reverential toward it (DVC),” Grazer said. “We got all the facts of the book right, but the movie was a little long and stagey.”

“We’re living in a world that’s much more unstable.  Therefore, our energy is focused on belief. This looks at what would happen when you have an act of terrorism designed to undermine that belief.”

“Weirdly, even though there was so much controversy on The Da Vinci Code, we were able to shoot everywhere.  We were in London, France, so it was harder to catch us.”

In Angels & Demons, “Langdon doesn’t stop and give a speech.  When he speaks, he’s in motion.”  Largely set at the Vatican, “we were pretty much in exile from the religious epicenter of the world.”

Also very important to note is that they’ve replaced that dated 80s Greaser mullet they gave Tom Hanks back in DVC with a more contemporary clean-shaven hairstyle :

Joining the cast, with Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon, are Ayelet Zurer as Vittoria Vetra, Ewan Mcgregor as Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca, Pierfrancesco Favino as Commander Olivetti, and Thure Lindhart as Lieutenant Chartrand.

“Angels & Demons” is scheduled to hit theaters May 15, 2009.

“I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying,” Moore said. “It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. It is as if we are freshly hatched birds looking up with our mouths open waiting for Hollywood to feed us more regurgitated worms. The ‘Watchmen’ film sounds like more regurgitated worms. I for one am sick of worms. Can’t we get something else? Perhaps some takeout? Even Chinese worms would be a nice change.”

With many of his graphic novels brought to the big screen, including “From Hell”, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, and “V for Vendetta”, Moore has never felt that the films can do justice to the original literature and he feels no different for the March bound release of “Watchmen”.

Moore said that with “Watchmen,” he told the epic tale of a large number of characters over decades of history with “a range of techniques” that cannot be translated to the movie screen, among them the “book within a book” technique, which took readers through a second, interior story as well as documents and the writings of characters. He also said he was offended by the amount of money and resources that go into the Hollywood projects. “They take an idea, bowdlerize it, blow it up, make it infantile and spend $100 million to give people a brief escape from their boring and often demeaning lives at work. It’s obscene and it’s offensive. This is not the culture I signed up for. I’m sure I sound like Bobby Fischer talking about chess “

Regardless of Moore’s feelings for how his original work has been translated by Hollywood, his works have enjoyed major success by movie goers from around the world.