Tom Hanks to reprise role as Robert Langdon in 'Inferno'

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks has signed on to play professor Robert Langdon in the cinematographic adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Inferno.

Ron Howard, who directed Hanks in the same role in The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009), returns to direct the upcoming film, which finds Langdon waking up with a hospital bed in Florence with no recollection of the past few days.

Brian Grazer will produce the film along with Howard and David Koepp will write the script, Deadline reports.

Inferno is the fourth installment of Brown's thrillers about Harvard symbologist Langdon. The book was released on May 14, 2013 and the film is slated to come out on December 18, 2015.