MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is set to release Angels & Demons, a film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel by the same name in India on 15 May.

Presented by Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, the film will also witness a simultaneous release worldwide.

Co-produced by Brian Grazer and John Calley along with director Ron Howard, Angels & Demons has Tom Hanks as the lead protagonist.

The film also stars Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, and Armin Mueller-Stahl. The screenplay is by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman.

Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is summoned to investigate a murder victim at CERN, who was branded with the Illuminati ambigram. Langdon discovers the Illuminati plan to kill four cardinals and destroy St. Peter's Basilica with stolen antimatter during a papal conclave.

"What's so great about a Robert Langdon adventure is that it stimulates so much curiosity and research. You read the book or see the movie, then you go to the library or on the internet - you want to understand Bernini, Galileo, their relationships with the Vatican, with the art world, with science, and the mystery of the Illuminati. Whether you believe it or not, it's fascinating stuff, and in Dan Brown's fertile imagination, it leads to a spellbinding set of clues and a great mystery," says Howard.