Dan Brown`s `Da Vinci Code` Follow-Up Out in Sept

Five million copies of "The Lost Symbol," which again features the fictional Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, will be printed.

Author Dan Brown's follow-up to his global hit "The Da Vinci Code" will be released in the United States, Britain and Canada on Sept. 15 and is titled "The Lost Symbol," publisher Random House said on Monday.

"The Da Vinci Code" has sold more than 70 million copies since its 2003 release and topped best-seller lists worldwide, outraging the Vatican and some Catholics because of the fictional story lines about conspiracy and the Catholic Church.

Five million copies of "The Lost Symbol," which again features the fictional, mystery-solving Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, will be printed -- the largest first print run in the history of Random House.

"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," Brown said in a statement. "Weaving five years of research into the story's 12-hour time frame was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."

No further details were given on the plot of the new book, which will be published in the United States and Canada by Doubleday and in Britain by Transworld Publishers, both imprints of Random House, which is part of Bertelsmann AG.

Tom Hanks played Langdon in the 2006 film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," which earned more than $750 million at the box office worldwide. A film adaption of Brown's earlier novel "Angels and Demons," again starring Hanks as Langdon, is due to be released in May.