For his next movie, erstwhile big-screen Jedi Ewan McGregor may be beholden to a different Force.

The Scottish thesp is in talks to play a powerful papal aide who helps Tom Hanks in Angels & Demons, the big-screen prequel to 2006's box-office hit, The Da Vinci Code. Ron Howard will once again direct an adaptation of a Dan Brown bestseller.

This time around, Harvard puzzlemaster Robert Langdon (Hanks) tries to thwart a plot by the ancient, secretive society known as the Illuminati to blow up the Vatican.

McGregor would be joining a cast that also includes Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer (Munich), who was recently hired for the part of Vittoria Vetra, the adopted daughter of a scientist whose murder sets the thriller in motion.

The presumptive blockbuster will begin shooting later this year in time for a May 2009 release.