THE director of the controversial film Angels & Demons beat a Vatican ban on filming churches and around St Peter's Square by dispatching a team of "fake tourists" to take 250,000 photographs and hours of video footage.
Church chiefs issued the edict because they were furious about another Dan Brown blockbuster being made into a movie after The Da Vinci Code had suggested Christ was a married father.
The ban had prevented director Ron Howard from filming both ins
ide and outside churches in the city of Rome.
Mr Howard had wanted to film in St Peter's Square and the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria.
In an interview with the Italian movie magazine Ciak, the film's special effects director, Ryan Cook, spoke of how the photographs and video footage were used to create sets in Los Angeles for the film.
He said: "The ban really put us in a lot of trouble because we could not use the precision instruments which are used to take photographs and make reconstructions in the computer.
"So for weeks we sent in a team of people to mix with tourists and take 250,000 photographs and hours of video footage."
Mr Cook added that the photographs were then used to digitally recreate scenes for the film, including crowd shots in St Peter's Square, when, during the film, the funeral of a Pope takes place.
Mr Howard also admitted that they had found a loophole to escape the ban. He said: "We didn't shoot at the Vatican … officially. But cameras can be made really small."
