The Da Vinci Code

Ron Howard Not Directing The Lost Symbol

After directing 2009's Angels & Demons and 2006's The Da Vinci Code, director Ron Howard has decided to skip out on adapting the final book in author Dan Brown's best-selling trilogy, The Lost Symbol,

"[Howard] wanted to produce this one, not direct," a Sony insider told Deadline. "He just didn't want to do that thing over and over, the same character and the same stories." The search is on for a new director, with the report claiming that Tom Hanks will return as the (occasionally creepy-haired) symbologist Robert Langdon.

Howard recently had his ambitious adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower abruptly canceled, leaving Howard's next directorial project a mystery, though the Academy Award–winning director is attached to two projects at Warner Bros.: an adaptation of author Jon Krakauer's (Into the Wild) Under The Banner Of Heaven, and a live-action version of Mad magazine's comic strip Spy vs. Spy.

• The Da Vinci Code
• Angels & Demons
• The Lost Symbol
• Ron Howard
• Dan Brown
• Tom Hanks