Strong Tries To Crack The Last Symbol

Danny Strong ("Recount") has been hired pen the newest draft of the adaptation of author Dan Brown's latest Robert Langdon novel The Lost Symbol reports Deadline. 

Mark Romanek ("Never Let Me Go," "One Hour Photo") will helm the sequel

Ron Howard, who directed both the 2003 movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code that made $758 million worldwide, and the follow-up film Angels & Demons (which Brown had actually written first) that made a considerably lower $486 million opted out this time He will instead produce with Brian Grazer.

The third story with symbologist Robert Langdon finds events set around Washington DC where the head of the Smithsonian Institute has been kidnapped and Langdon must confront the Freemasons, Noetic Science and a tattooed killer.

Strong marks the third writer to adapt The Lost Symbol script after Oscar-nominated writer Steven Knight and Brown himself.

Tom Hanks, who played Langdon in the first two films, is expected to reprise the role--but a deal is not yet signed yet