Tom Hanks Banned from Roman Churches

Hollywood star Tom Hanks has been forbidden to film Angels and Demons in Roman churches, MonstersAndCritics.com reports.

Hanks is in the midst of shooting Angels and Demons, a prequel to The Da Vinci Code.

Rome church officials have banned the actor and his team to film inside both Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria, which are both crucial settings in the story, according to TimesOnline.co.uk.

The production team is only allowed to shoot the exteriors of the churches.

Dan Brown's initial novel, The Da Vinci Code, upset the Catholic Church when it proposed that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and raised a family with her, as well as suggesting that the Holy Grail was the bloodline of Jesus.

According to TimesOnline.co.uk, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, Father Marco Fibbi, stated: "Normally we read the script, but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough."

A Catholic Church spokesperson said that the films question Catholic beliefs and therefore have no place in these churches.

Church official Monsignor Marco Fibbi stated: "It's a film that treats religious issues in a way that contrasts with common religious sentiment. We would be helping them create a work that might well be beautiful but that does not conform to our views."

The head of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, claimed that Brown had "turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith. . . . It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business."