We've known it was coming ever since the book was announced, but now it's official: Sony has decided to ignore the diminishing returns of Angels And Demons and hired writer Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) to adapt Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.

Yes, despite Angels' $486 million haul falling well short of The Da Vinci Code's $758 million worldwide takings, the studio believes there's still life in Tom Hanks' Professor Robert Langdon, his hair and his middle distance stare.

That's assuming, of course, that Hanks signs (he hasn't set a deal yet), but you can bet that Sony will be delivering a hefty pay offer to his house as soon as the bank opens.

The book, meanwhile, proved to be yet another massive bestseller for Brown, and finds the good prof called to Washington to figure out the symbology of the Freemasons. Dark historical secrets will no doubt be revealed with his life under blah blah the usual.

We're betting Hanks and Ron Howard will be aboard soon enough and Sony will want this one out in the world by 2012 at the latest.