“The Lost Symbol” has the best chance of being a great movie out of its already-adapted group of novels for several reasons. The most obvious is that it’s got far more action than Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code combined. The result of that action is a drastic reduction in exposition ‐ the second most obvious positive trait the book has going for it.
Now, Sony wants the author himself to play script doctor for The Lost Symbol film. It’s not a bad idea, but it’s a wild card. Brown is a great writer in the way that Louis L’Amour is a great writer. He’ll never go down in history as being deeper than a casket full of water, but he entertains far better than most. Whether his florid writing can translate to the tight-as-a-drum medium of screenplays is anybody’s guess, but his inclusion in the script process means the film either just lost or intensified its potential to be a threequel that far outshines its two predecessors. [THR]
