Director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks team up once more for Inferno, the third film in the €1 billion-earning Robert Langdon franchise, following The Da Vinci Code (released in 2006) and Angels and Demons (2009) – all based, of course, on the best-selling thrillers by Dan Brown.

Hanks once more dons the mantle of famed symbologist Robert Langdon, whose expertise is often sought in solving intricate puzzles that have global implications. This time, he embarks on a trail of clues tied to the famous 14th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital suffering from amnesia, and haunted by feverish visions and intense headaches. He teams up with Dr Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), whom he hopes will help him recover his memories.

Together, the two travel across Europe to stop a madman from unleashing a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out half the world’s population.

In the movie’s production notes, director Howard emphasises that the role of Langdon fits Hanks like a glove.

“Part of the reason everybody loves Tom in this role is that, in real life, he is Robert Langdon,” he says. “Both are driven by curiosity, share a dry sense of humour, and are men who, when faced with a puzzle, are like a dog with a bone – they are fascinated by the world around them and have the wonderful kind of mind that is able to decode it.  And that’s all on top of the fact that he’s one of the best actors of our generation.”

It has drama, it has action, it’s a thriller and it has a human dimension

Hanks states that he enjoys returning time and again to the role of Robert Langdon because for him there’s nothing quite like unravelling a riddle. “Dan Brown created a character that can always be called into play: there’s always going to be a mystery worth analysing.”

‘Inferno’ is of course the Italian word for ‘hell’, and is also the title of the first ‘cantica’ in Dante’s Divina Commedia.  With the stakes so catastrophically high, Langdon has to follow and decrypt a series of clues relating to Dante’s eponymous poem.

“Dante invented our modern conception of Hell,” says producer Brian Grazer.  “In the book, Dante witnesses sinners on Earth punished by poetic justice. That becomes the basis of the puzzles Langdon has to solve in this movie.  Dante described Hell; the painter Botticelli visualised Hell; but only Robert Langdon, the symbologist, can prevent Hell on Earth by stopping the release of a deadly virus.”

To take the analogy further, Hanks explains that “hell, for Langdon in the movie, is both a state of mind and a very physical experience, because he is wracked with pain in his head and he is tortured by the fact he is ignorant of the reasons why.”

“Without a doubt, Langdon goes through his own personal form of hell at the opening of this movie – his personal Inferno,” elaborates Brown, who also serves as executive producer on the film. “He wakes up in a hospital room, people are trying to kill him, and he has no idea what this artefact is that he’s carrying.  He has to follow a trail of clues to find out who wants him dead and why.”

Needless to say, a film of this sort is chock-full of excitement. “Inferno has every reason to be exciting to audiences, because it has drama, it has action, it’s a thriller and it has a human dimension,” says Grazer. “It has all these sort of thriller components and a very big international cast; you travel throughout the world in a very kind of exotic and in some ways almost a fantasy way and it’s driven by Langdon played by Hanks.”

Said international cast is led by the British actress Jones as Dr Brooks, French actor Omar Sy as Christoph Bouchard, Indian star Irrfan Khan as Harry Sims and Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen as Dr Elizabeth Sinskey. Ben Foster, an American, also stars as the bioengineer Bertrand Zobrist.

Inferno was adapted for the screen by David Koepp.

Storks

Also showing

Storks, Class: U – Storks deliver babies, or at least they used to. Now, they deliver packages for a global internet retail giant. Junior (Andy Samberg), the company’s top delivery stork, lands in hot water when the Baby Factory produces an adorable but wholly unauthorised girl.

Showing today only

Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon – 25th anniversary performance, Class: 15 – A gala performance is showing at various cinemas today only, in celebration of the production’s anniversary. The epic love story tells the tragic tale of a young bargirl, Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with American GI Chris – but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. Miss Saigon features appearances by the original cast, including Jonathan Pryce and Lea Salonga. The film shows  at the Eden Cinema, St Julian’s (16.30 and 20.00), the Empire Cinema, Bugibba (16.00 and 20.30), the Embassy Cinema, Valletta (16.00 and 19.30), Galleria Cinema, Fgura (14.00, 17.30 and 20.50) and the Citadel Cinema in Gozo at 20.00.