Everybody loves a good conspiracy theory. And luckily for author Dan Brown and the execs at Sony, it seems that a lot of people also love really bad conspiracy theories, as the box office success of those Illuminati and critically derided films "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons" proves.

Well, don't look now, but according to Deadline, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks have both signed on for a third installment of the further adventures of Professor Blatant Exposition Robert Langdon as they will be reuniting for an adaptation of Brown's novel "Inferno."

In the meantime, someone needs to come up with a good conspiracy theory to explain how these movies keep getting made ... ya know, apart from all that cash (a combined $1.24 billion at the international box office for the first two installments).

Given the loot at stake, movie three was never really in doubt. What was a question mark until now, though, was the participation of both Howard and Hanks. While Hanks had been expected to return for a third movie, until now Howard was set only to produce, in part because he apparently wasn't a big fan of Brown's last book, "The Lost Symbol."

Now that "Inferno" is out, though, Howard must like this one much better (meaning the script for "The Lost Symbol" has been symbolically chucked in the woodchipper). And while Howard stumbled a bit with his last film — the brutally terrible comedy "The Dilemma" — he's still Ron-Freakin'-Howard, the Oscar-winning director and producer who's worth making, um, such adjustments for.

"Inferno" is set to hit theaters on December 18, 2015, so, hey, at least we have two full years to lower our expectations.