Ron Howard: Filming ‘Inferno’ in Florence Was A Nightmare

Ron Howard has returned to the Robert Langdon series for his next film. Inferno, which arrives in theaters Friday, is the follow-up to his previous films The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. All three mystery thrillers are based on novels by writer Dan Brown.

In Inferno, Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon who wakes up with amnesia at a hospital in Italy. Felicity Jones portrays a doctor who tries to help him recover his memories, as well as work with him to prevent the release of a deadly virus that would drastically decrease the world’s population.

Being able to shoot the film in Florence seems like it would be a wonderful experience, but Howard revealed to BackstageOL’s Dave Morales that it actually presented some difficulties.

“Well, look, you pinch yourself everyday ‘cause it’s gorgeous, it’s steeped in history, it’s an enviable place. Everybody wants to be here and to be able to say you actually lived and worked there is tremendous,” he said. “But as a live-action movie director, it’s a nightmare! I mean this is where everybody wants to go and visit and the economy depends on it, and they gave us a lot of cooperation, but…where you’d normally have a day to shoot a scene, you get maybe three hours of access to get in and get out. But you want to take the audience to the place. You want to tell the story the way Dan Brown intended it to be told, and so you do it, and you just prepare and work hard.”

Watch our interview with Howard below: