With Angels & Demons fast approaching for release on May 15, it's no surprise Variety reports that Columbia Pictures has jumped ahead about 5 months to begin negotiations for Dan Brown's third novel in the Robert Langdon centered series, The Lost Symbol.

The book isn't set to be published until September 15, but since Sony has the rights to the Robert Langdon character, they are acting fast to finalize a deal. Since negotiations have just began, there's no official word on the return of Tom Hanks, or series director Ron Howard returning, but since this franchise is such a huge investment and payoff for Columbia Pictures, I imagine they will do everything in their power to get them back for a third go-round.

Seriously though, how much trouble can a symbologist get into? I mean it's the same damn problem with something like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. You're investigating a crime scene. How dangerous can that be? Robert Langdon needs to calm down or he's going to get into some Mr. Bean type of trouble here before too long. Oh, he's so wacky!

Angels & Demons releases this summer on May 15. Check out the trailer right here.