- Title: "Inferno" cast and makers prepare for world premiere in Florence
- Date: 6th October 2016
- Summary: FLORENCE, ITALY (OCTOBER 6, 2016) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BANNER FOR "INFERNO" HANGING FROM BALCONY INSIDE PALAZZO VECCHIO / DIRECTOR RON HOWARD ARRIVING FOR PHOTO CALL AND NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF HOWARD POSING FOR PHOTOS IN FRONT OF "INFERNO" POSTER HOWARD POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS VARIOUS OF ACTOR TOM HANKS POSING FOR PHOTOS ACTRESS FELICITY JONES ARRIVING AND POSING FOR PHOTOS PHOTOGRAPHERS AND JOURNALISTS TAKING PHOTOS JONES, HANKS AND HOWARD POSING FOR PHOTOS VARIOUS OF AUTHOR DAN BROWN ARRIVING AND POSING FOR PHOTOS CEILING FRESCO VARIOUS OF ACTOR OMAR SY POSING FOR PHOTOS JOURNALISTS TAKING PHOTOS SY, BROWN, ACTOR IRRFAN KHAN, JONES, HANKS AND HOWARD POSING FOR PHOTOS HOWARD, HANKS AND JONES / JONES PULLING A FACE AS SY TAKES PHOTO WITH MOBILE PHONE JOURNALISTS TAKING PHOTOS NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, TOM HANKS, SAYING: "I think as far as the world goes, particularly at this time and place when we seem to be at yet another crossroads in the history of human kind, I think the embracing of ignorance is more dangerous than any other aspect of human behaviour." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, TOM HANKS, SAYING: "Zobrist in our film, with the idea of overpopulation really puts forward the idea that we are creating our own version of Dante's inferno here in the real world. There is any number of places you could go on the planet earth and the environment is hellacious and the people are held in slavery and there is any numbers of degrees of misery that are in fact created by ourselves one way or another. So, the concept of inferno is to me is one that can be avoided but only if everybody understands what the problem is and works to avoid it." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, RON HOWARD, SAYING: "What was fascinating to me as I began to undertake adapting the novel was how visual and powerful Dante's images where. And in going back and actually really reading it I felt that he was giving us the vocabulary of every horror movie we've ever seen and admired and you begin to look at it not only on a kind of philosophical level but also as a cultural, a huge cultural and political shift." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, FELICITY JONES, SAYING: "There are people from all over the world, there are different languages, it felt incredibly contemporary, it feels in a world that increasingly through technology is getting much smaller, the film represented this sense of global unity and there was something fascinating about that." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, OMAR SY, SAYING: "Back in the time in school I wasn't so attentive, not so focused and now I'm in my job and that set was a great masterclass because of all the talent you can see and all the locations we were in to shoot so I learned a lot in Florence, it was a great masterclass for me." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, IRRFAN KHAN, SAYING: "For me now sometimes just fame is phoney, it appears to be fake sometimes. It doesn't give you enough to rely on, or to keep, it doesn't give you enough, you feel empty. Just the fame. The thing which stays with you is you experience something through a story, you go through the experience and that experience becomes the audiences' experience all around the world. And that sharing is something very precious, that sharing where you become part of somebody else's memory, their heart, their consciousness. You do something to their heart, and their mind, and their intellect. That sharing is very precious to me and that keeps me going in this business." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUTHOR, DAN BROWN, SAYING: "I believe that a lot of these big issues that we are talking about, things like no clean water and even something like terrorism, they are symptoms of overpopulation, they are symptoms of people not having the resources that they need to live. And clearly...we were talking about immigration, that's an enormous problem in a lot of countries. The point I'm trying to make is like people don't want to move, ideally they would stay where they live but there's situations where they can't and people are just trying to find a way to live. It's a very difficult situation, you can argue both sides of it. But my heart goes out to communities that are accepting a lot of immigrants because it changes the dynamic, my heart also goes out to the immigrants, like you'd stay where you live if you could." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUTHOR, DAN BROWN, SAYING: "If you're looking to sleep it's not very good to be me at all. I'm kind of busy. But it's all things that I love and I'm very excited to finish this book and I'm excited for it to come out. It's again big, difficult themes, Robert Langdon, art, but a really interesting, fresh, new topic."
- Embargoed: 21st October 2016 18:20
- Keywords: Rome Italy film festival Inferno movie Tom Hanks Dan Brown Felicity Jones Ron Howard
- Location: FLORENCE, ITALY AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: FLORENCE, ITALY AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Film
- Reuters ID: LVA00152VCTOT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Director Ron Howard and his leading stars Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy and Irrfan Khan on Thursday (October 6) returned to Florence where "Inferno", the third film to be adapted from the Dan Brown novels about symbologist Robert Langdon, will receive its world premiere later in the week.
Many of the film's scenes were shot in the renowned buildings and piazzas of Florence, the birthplace of Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
"Inferno", which follows on the blockbuster book and film franchise Brown's 2003 religious-themed mystery novel "The Da Vinci Code," centres on the "Divine Comedy," the masterpiece by Dante.
In the film Hanks reprises the role of Harvard symbologist Langdon, unlocking more mysterious codes as the world-famous character he on Thursday described as "the smartest guy in the room".
The plot sees Langdon follow a trail of clues about the poet in a race to save the world's population from a deadly artificial plague.
Addressing reporters at a news conference at Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, Hanks said the film's central theme hit close to home.
The actor said he believed the world was at a crossroads and described "ignorance" and "the embracing of ignorance" as the biggest threats to humankind.
"I think as far as the world goes, particularly at this time and place when we seem to be at yet another crossroads in the history of human kind, I think the embracing of ignorance is more dangerous than any other aspect of human behaviour," he said.
"Zobrist in our film, with the idea of overpopulation really puts forward the idea that we are creating our own version of Dante's inferno here in the real world. There is any number of places you could go on the planet earth and the environment is hellacious and the people are held in slavery and there is any numbers of degrees of misery that are in fact created by ourselves one way or another. So, the concept of inferno is to me is one that can be avoided but only if everybody understands what the problem is and works to avoid it," Hanks added.
Howard, who previously directed the film adaptations of "The Da Vinci Code" as well as Brown's "Angels and Demons", which also featured Langdon, said he had found inspiration from Dante himself as he sought to translate Brown's novel onto the big screen.
"What was fascinating to me as I began to undertake adapting the novel was how visual and powerful Dante's images where. And in going back and actually really reading it I felt that he was giving us the vocabulary of every horror movie we've ever seen and admired and you begin to look at it not only on a kind of philosophical level but also as a cultural, a huge cultural and political shift," he said.
For British actress Jones, who in the film portrays doctor Sienna Brooks, the attraction lay in the film's more unifying elements.
"There are people from all over the world, there are different languages, it felt incredibly contemporary, it feels in a world that increasingly through technology is getting much smaller, the film represented this sense of global unity and there was something fascinating about that," she said.
French actor Omar Sy of "The Intouchables" and "Jurassic World" fame told reporters he enjoyed his "Inferno" experience so much his main challenge on the set was to contain his smile.
"Back in the time in school I wasn't so attentive, not so focused and now I'm in my job and that set was a great masterclass because of all the talent you can see and all the locations we were in to shoot so I learned a lot in Florence, it was a great masterclass for me," he said.
Indian superstar Irrfan Khan, meanwhile, said his focus had shifted from fame-seeking to storytelling.
"For me now sometimes just fame is phoney, it appears to be fake sometimes. It doesn't give you enough to rely on, or to keep, it doesn't give you enough, you feel empty. Just the fame. The thing which stays with you is you experience something through a story, you go through the experience and that experience becomes the audiences' experience all around the world. And that sharing is something very precious, that sharing where you become part of somebody else's memory, their heart, their consciousness. You do something to their heart, and their mind, and their intellect. That sharing is very precious to me and that keeps me going in this business," he said.
In an interview following the news conference, Brown said he believed framing Dante as prophecy and not as history made the story relevant to a modern audience.
Brown said he was passionate about overpopulation, which he described a "very serious problem that needs a light shone on it".
"I believe that a lot of these big issues that we are talking about, things like no clean water and even something like terrorism, they are symptoms of overpopulation, they are symptoms of people not having the resources that they need to live. And clearly...we were talking about immigration, that's an enormous problem in a lot of countries. The point I'm trying to make is like people don't want to move, ideally they would stay where they live but there's situations where they can't and people are just trying to find a way to live. It's a very difficult situation, you can argue both sides of it. But my heart goes out to communities that are accepting a lot of immigrants because it changes the dynamic, my heart also goes out to the immigrants, like you'd stay where you live if you could," he said.
The author's publishers last week announced that his fifth book in the Langdon series, titled "Origin", is scheduled to be released in a year's time on September 26, 2017.
"If you're looking to sleep it's not very good to be me at all. I'm kind of busy. But it's all things that I love and I'm very excited to finish this book and I'm excited for it to come out. It's again big, difficult themes, Robert Langdon, art, but a really interesting, fresh, new topic," he said.
"Inferno" will receive its world premiere in Florence on Saturday (October 8). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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