Brown’s last book-turned-movie, The Da Vinci Code spawned hordes of tourists, toting well-thumbed novels, traipsing around France, Scotland and elsewhere to unravel its mysteries. Now, Romans are wondering if the film Angels and Demons based on the 2000 predecessor to The Da Vinci Code will do the same for their city.

Some hope so. Patrizia Prestipino, head of Rome’s provincial department of tourism said, “A film like this could relaunch American tourism,” which has dropped by six percent this year from last year (largely because of the weak dollar). The story takes place in some of the most magnificent spots in Rome, including the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and Piazza del Popolo. “For us, it’s like free advertising. I say the more films they produce in Rome, the better,” Prestipino said. Other groups, like the Roman Catholic Church, which sees its authority as being undermined in both Brown best-sellers, have been less receptive.

Requests to film on location in Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria, churches that are homes to paintings by Caravaggio, sculptures by Bernini and a chapel designed by Raphael, were refused. They are also where cardinals are murdered and mutilated in Angels and Demons. “We give authorisations to productions that are compatible with religious sentiment,” said Rev Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Rome diocese. “With Dan Brown’s books this problem exists.”

Last week the production moved to the Royal Palace in Caserta, just north of Naples, to shoot Vatican interiors. (The Caserta location has also doubled for intergalactic palaces in two of the ‘Star Wars’ prequels.) “No one ever gets permission to film inside the Vatican,” Father Fibbi explained. “They didn’t even make an exception for the mini-series on the life of Pope John Paul II.”

Like The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons stars Hanks as Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of art history and religious symbology. This time he finds himself desperately trying to stop the Illuminati, a secret society hellbent on the destruction of the Vatican. (Antimatter plays a big role in their plot.) Filming began in Rome on June 4, and has been fiercely protected. (Sony Pictures turned down requests for interviews with the production team in Rome.) The production even worked under a fake title to throw autograph-seekers off the scent.

“They billed the film as ‘Obelisk’, but there were so many people milling about the set that it was pretty clear that it wasn’t true,” said Federico Guberti, a Roman paparazzo, who was among many staking out Piazza del Popolo when shooting began. Obelisks, as anyone who has read the book knows, play a starring role in the plot. The release date May 2009, may be nearly a year away, but some entrepreneurs in Rome are already benefiting from the buzz surrounding the making of the movie.

“The hype has started,” said Simone Gozzi, the director of Dark Rome tours. Gozzi said his company operated the only official tour linked to Angels and Demons. He also said that the tour attracts an average of 600 clients a month.

Rome experts say the film could correct some of the book’s errors. “People are saying, ‘Wait a minute, in Angels and Demons Dan Brown says this or that,’ and we give a spiel about veracity and then explain that what risks being damaged is the image of Rome,” said Paul Bennett, the founder of Context Travel, an upscale tour operator that does not do Angels and Demons tours.

Alberto Artioli, the state official responsible for Leonardo’s Last Supper, in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan, has experienced something similar since  Brown turned St John into Mary Magdalene in The Da Vinci Code. Before “The Da Vinci Code,” Artioli said, “people would ask us which of the figures is Judas, now people ask which one is the Magdalene. It’s a little discouraging to see that people take the interpretation as truth instead of a game.”

Mistakes and leaps of imagination aside, Prestipino, Rome’s tourism official, said she would like to do something for the film’s 2009 release. But others counter that Rome needs no advertising. The Rev Antonio Truda, the parish priest at Santa Maria del Popolo, marvels that anyone would come to his church just because its Chigi Chapel. 
Father Truda may want to speak to Colin Glynn-Percy, the director of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust in Midlothian, Scotland. Before The Da Vinci Code, Rosslyn Chapel averaged 38,000 visitors a year; in 2006, the year the movie was released, 176,000 visitors came. “When people visit Scotland and someone mentions Rosslyn, they’ll think that’s something to do with the Da Vinci Code and come,” Glynn-Percy said. “So the effects are continuing.”

New York Times