Wrestling with Demons

Director Ron Howard picks up the pace in Da Vinci Code sequel and softens its clash between faith and science | Mindy Belz

Zade Rosenthal/Columbia Pictures

ROME—Ron Howard isn't going to sit out the controversy over his latest Dan Brown movie adaptation, Angels & Demons. When the U.S. Catholic League's William Donohue accused the two-time Oscar-winning director last month of "smearing the Catholic church" and "painting it as anti-reason," Howard came back with his own commentary on The Huffington Post: "Neither I nor Angels & Demons are anti-Catholic."

Howard told reporters in Rome on May 3 he is frustrated by Catholic opposition to his latest movie, which premiered May 4 in Rome and opens nationwide in the United States May 15. Catholic critics, he said, are running on "abstract anxiety"—none had seen the movie, and Catholic leaders who received an invitation to a pre-screening in March all declined. That same day Howard learned that the bishop of Rome had issued a formal denouncement of the movie, calling it "harmful to the church."