Word is out from Random House yesterday that Dan Brown’s sequel to “The Da Vinci Code,” titled “The Lost Symbol” and featuring “The Code’s” main character Robert Langdon, will be released in September. Five million copies are planned.

The new novel, Brown’s first since “The Da Vinci Code” was published in March of 2003, has been surrounded with a bit of intrigue since the 2005 publication of “The Solomon Key,” a supposed guide to the book Brown has been working on. In February of this year, Ron Howard, who directed “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” (which hits theaters May 15) cranked up the excitement when he said that “The Solomon Key” was finished–only to have a Random House publicist deny that the book was ready, or even called “The Solomon Key.” The publicist turns out to have been half right, anyway.