The Da Vinci Code (2006) (SPOILERS possible - but use spoiler space)

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[B][SIZE=3]Goldsman Finishing The Da Vinci Code[/SIZE][/B]

Source: Chicago Sun-Times June 13, 2005


The Chicago Sun-Times caught up with The Da Vinci Code screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, who says "We're doing the final polish of the script as we speak." The film, to be directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, is based on the Dan Brown bestseller.

"It's funny that this project started with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer calling and saying, 'Hey, want to turn this book into a movie? It's some little deal of a book," Goldsman adds.

He continued: "When I started writing the movie, the book hadn't exploded yet. I had just read what I thought was a really compelling novel that turned into one of the most well-read books in history."

Columbia Pictures is eyeing a May 19, 2006 release date for the thriller, also starring Jean Reno, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina and Paul Bettany.

Sasha
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Maybe you're right. I myself prefer "Angels and Demons" to "The da Vinci Code" because it was much much more thrilling ...

Have a nice day!

Ann :sun:
 
Since the film hype seems to be in full swing I'm bringing this thread back from the dead. Obviously we lost some newer posts because of the crash.

Anyone else getting excited for it?
 
A man has been charged with breach of the peace at the chapel in Midlothian where Hollywood actor Tom Hanks is filming the Da Vinci Code.

Sasha
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I kept hearing the Tom Hanks rumor all day on the radio, and was pleased. He seems to fit the description of Robert Langdon given in the book. :D

"Although Professor Langdon might not be considered hunk-handsome like some of our younger awardees, this forty-something academic has more than his share of scholarly allure. His captivating presence is punctuated by an unusually low, baritone speaking voice, which his female students describe as 'chocolate for the ears.' "

The hall erupted in laughter.

Langdon forced an awkward smile. He knew what came next—some ridiculous line about "Harrison Ford in Harris tweed"—and because this evening he had figured it was finally safe again to wear his Harris tweed and Burberry turtleneck, he decided to take action.

"Thank you, Monique," Langdon said, standing prematurely and edging her away from the podium. "Boston Magazine clearly has a gift for fiction." He turned to the audience with an embarrassed sigh. "And if I find which one of you provided that article, I'll have the consulate deport you."

The crowd laughed.

Sasha
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Angels and Demons was such a good book but the story was so out there:eek:
Right when you think it's over it throws you into another orbit and you find out it is the LAST person you would ever expect, then they go cuckoo and it's still not over.


I pictured Robert Langdon more rugged more like Russell Crowe. Or just with short hair.
 
Ahh, well at one point in the book doesn't he manhandle some men or something. I thought they described him as a hulking guy. I assumed it would be a thick big tall albino man.
 
I'm glad someone agrees. :)

I work right next to the movie theatre, and we had people parading outside and protesting with signs. It just gets to the point know where now, it's plain annoying. Everyone can have their own values or beliefs. It's just a book, and it's just a movie. Believe what you want.

Liz - I wondered myself how well Tom Hanks could pull off a character like Langdon. I have my own idea in my head of his image, as well as personality...and as great of an actor as Tom is, I just can't see it. But, my opinion might change when I finally see the movie. :)
 
Ooh, Colin Firth. :drool:

Here's an article about the CNN Presents episode I saw: Two Marys: Two views of femininity.

Magdalene people and Madonna people come across quite differently on CNN this month, though the distinction is not so simple as the one between whores and virgins. Those who adulate the Virgin Mary tend to be fairly young or visibly old, speakers of Romance languages, floridly religious, prone to emotional display. Devotees of Mary Magdalene -- a much more recent phenomenon -- tend to be middle-aged, English-speaking feminists, often with a superficially rationalist bent. These are some of the conclusions you might draw from The Two Marys: The Madonna and the Magdalene, a production of CNN Presents.

Moreover, according to the film, many in the Magdalene group, whose numbers pundits keep telling us are growing, appear to supplement their Bible reading with two other books: the Gnostic gospels and -- more abashedly, perhaps --The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.

The Two Marys is the latest documentary to use Brown's unstoppable Da Vinci Code as an occasion to look at the state of the folk stories derived from what used to be called high-church Christianity. The program, narrated by Sigourney Weaver, gets off to an awkward start when it refers to the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene as "media stars" and "two of the most popular women on the planet." But in the flotsam and jetsam that follow -- theology, archaeology, sociology, cultural studies, conspiracy theories and all manner of clips and interviews from CNN's info fridge -- the film is on to something.

The competing approaches to femininity in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches (and even in other Protestant denominations) now have their own figureheads, and we may even be witnessing the rise of a new form of Christian worship, the Magdalene cult.

The story of the Marys is best told in bits and pieces. The evolution of the Virgin Mary from the personification of purity to a candidate for social work -- a "poor woman in a violent situation," who was "at risk" in her pregnancy, as the documentary puts it -- is not linear. Nor is it complete. Protestants who might once have objected to Mary worship, believing that it undermined the Holy Trinity, or contemporary Christians who thought there was something unwholesome in the overvaluation of virginity, might accept Mary more readily now as an inspirer of the indigent and the homeless.

But most of her advocates still insist that she's the chaste Holy Mother, above all. To make this point, the documentary shows a priest emphasizing that Mary herself was immaculately conceived.

To track the alterations in the Virgin Mary's significance, CNN is right to use pastiche. News clips, like one of the pope recovering from the 1981 attempt to assassinate him (he believes that Mary guided the bullet's path and saved him), juxtaposed with images of Mary parades and semi-scholars musing about her poverty and her pregnancy, are the best way to illustrate a myth, if the wrong way to build historical argument.

The growth of the new Magdalene cult is still harder to keep straight, as it's a current trend. Though a work of fiction, The Da Vinci Code, published last year, presents a far-fetched if captivating idea of Mary Magdalene as a religious leader, the wife of Jesus and even the mother of his children.

Many of the ideas in the book had been around as esoterica or heresy for years, and few religious leaders give them much credence. But readers of Brown's novel have been inspired to pursue his fantasies, traveling to the Louvre and the Temple Church in London to find proof of Mary Magdalene's status. In doing so -- a priest says that visitors to the Temple Church talk about The Da Vinci Code as if it were the Bible -- they express, according to this documentary, great enthusiasm for a female Christ figure who might stand for women who now feel shut out of church leadership.

As the film puts it, "This change in perception, among scholars and the public, that Mary Magdalene was a leader and not a sinner is seismic, for both Christianity and especially for Christian women, who have filled the pews but not the pulpits and who now want their due."

It's easy to find opportunism in the proliferation of Jesus covers on newsmagazines, and the perennial production of television documentaries on Christian themes. But the role of the Virgin Mary has been a sticking point in the Roman Catholic Church -- and between Catholics and Protestants -- for a long time. It's still more interesting to put this question in the context of the most recent Da Vinci Code-inspired Magdalene enthusiasm. Among all the trivial trends that are overplayed by television, this -- the birth and rebirth of Christian goddess-worship -- is not one.

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Here's an article about the two-hour special Unlocking Da Vinci's Code: The Full Story that premiered this past Sunday on the National Geographic Channel: No Gospel in "Da Vinci Code" Claims, Scholars Say.

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Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."
A new documentary examines
claims about Jesus Christ, da Vinci,
and others that have helped make
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code
a best-seller.

The secrets in The Da Vinci Code—Dan Brown's hugely successful best-seller—are hardly secret any more: Mary Magdalene was really the wife of Jesus. The two had a child and their descendants walk among us today.

According to Brown, the truth was suppressed by the Catholic Church but handed down through centuries by a secret society that included Leonardo da Vinci, who hid clues about the union in his paintings.

While the novel has spawned a whole cottage industry of museum tours and books exploring the credibility of this claim, Brown himself has stayed largely out of the spotlight.
But in a National Geographic Channel documentary, Unlocking Da Vinci's Code: The Full Story, the reclusive author talks about his controversial theory.

"I began as a skeptic," Brown says in the special, which premiered this past Sunday. "As I started researching The Da Vinci Code, I really thought I would disprove a lot of this theory about Mary Magdalene and holy blood and all of that. I became a believer."

Most scholars interviewed in the documentary and elsewhere, however, say that Brown is relying on discredited sources and flimsy connections to make his bloodline theory.

Still, most experts concede that the Church suppressed some early Christian writings that may have differed from the version of events described in the Bible. They also contend that Mary Magdalene, while not married to Jesus Christ, was probably a lot closer to Jesus than most people imagine.

Gospel of Mary

Mary Magdalene is one of the most elusive figures in Christianity. She has been depicted as a prostitute, though there is no evidence in the Bible for that.

Instead, she was an intimate disciple of Jesus. All four gospels in the New Testament say she was present at both the Crucifixion of Jesus and the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection.

But neither the Bible nor any other historical text identifies Mary as the wife of Jesus. A married woman at the time would have gone by her husband's name, but Mary was referred to as being from the town of Magdala.

"This notion that she's talked about as being from this place indicates that she was independent," said Karen King, a history professor at Harvard Divinity School and a leading authority on Mary Magdalene.

While it would have been unusual for a Jewish man like Jesus Christ to not be married, it was not unheard of.

"The really odd thing would be to have Mary married to Jesus and have them next to each other in the same text [in the Bible] and for it not to be mentioned," King said. "That for me is quite conclusive that they were not married."

One of Brown's sources is a controversial text known as the Gospel of Mary. It is believed to have been written in the second century by a Christian sect and is generally accepted as authentic, even by the Church. However, the text's veracity and importance are very much up for debate.

Although the Gospel of Mary does not show any evidence of Jesus Christ and Mary being married, it suggests their relationship was stronger than it is described in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Mary, Jesus Christ reveals deep theological insights to Mary, who appears to understand his teachings better than his male disciples do.

Power Struggle

Brown's assertion that the divinity of Jesus Christ was an invention by the Roman emperor Constantine in A.D. 325 is widely dismissed by scholars—Christ's divinity had already been described in the New Testament.

But many scholars agree that a power struggle raged within the early Christian church, especially over the role of women. Beginning in the fifth century, Catholic leaders began referring to Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, perhaps because they wanted to undermine women's ability to use Mary Magdalene's example as an argument for greater power.

"Brown tells people something they didn't know, that the early history of Christianity was much more complicated than anybody thought," said Joseph Kelly, a professor of religious studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

The theory proposed in Brown's novel is that Mary Magdalene and her daughter, Sara, were whisked away to France after Christ's death. There, the descendants of Jesus and Mary intermarried with French kings, creating the so-called Merovingian dynasty. But there is no evidence of such a child or bloodline in any verifiable documents.

The Last Supper

Brown, however, believes that a secret society known as the Priory of Sion was established to protect the descendants of this royal bloodline.

In the early 1960s a set of documents was discovered at a French library that appeared to list the members of this secret society. The names included famous scientists and artists like Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci.

At the heart of Brown's novel is the suggestion that da Vinci hid clues about the secret of Jesus and Mary within one of his masterpieces, "The Last Supper."

Conspicuously missing from da Vinci's painting is the cup, also known as the Holy Grail, from which Jesus Christ is believed to have drunk on the night before his execution.

But Brown says the Holy Grail is included in the painting. Only it's not a cup but a person: Christ's supposed wife, Mary Magdalene. He says the person seated at the right of Jesus is not John the Baptist but Mary Magdalene.

"If you look at that painting, it's clearly a woman," Brown says in the documentary.

Art historians and religious scholars, however, scoff at the idea. Although the person to the right of Christ appears effeminate—with long flowing hair and no beard—they say that's how John the Baptist is usually depicted in most works of art.

In fact, there is no evidence that da Vinci was a member of the Priory of Sion or that such a society even existed. The secret files found at the French library were later deemed to be a hoax, scholars say.


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And finally, anyone hear that Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, author's of Holy Blood, Holy Grail are suing? Here's the article: NZ author suing over Da Vinci bestseller

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Michael Baigent

A New Zealand author is embroiled in a plagiarism row over Dan Brown's blockbuster hit, the religious thriller The Da Vinci Code, and has launched legal action against the novel's publishers.

Nelson-born Michael Baigent and American writing partner Richard Leigh are suing Random House Group in Britain, claiming damages that could run to millions of dollars.

The Da Vinci Code joined the New York Times bestseller list at No 1 and has sold more than 12 million copies internationally.

Before the lucrative Christmas sales week it had sold about 100,000 here and remains at No 1 on the local bestseller list.

It has reportedly earned Brown £140 million ($380 million) and is about to be turned into a Hollywood movie starring Tom Hanks.

But Baigent and Leigh, whose own 1982 work Holy Blood, Holy Grail caused such religious outrage when it was published that it sparked death threats, say Brown has lifted large tracts of their research without permission.

Their lawsuit claims at least £150,000 damages for breach of copyright, saying a "substantial" amount of their work has been used and asking that copies of The Da Vinci Code be destroyed.

Baigent told the Weekend Herald the United Kingdom lawsuit meant he could not talk about the case, or which parts of The Da Vinci Code he and Leigh say amount to plagiarism.

"All I can tell you is that we are suing Dan Brown for theft of intellectual property.

"The matter's with the High Court, it's sub judice, and I can't say anything more than that unfortunately.

"It's never a nice thing for one writer to have to be suing another."

Random House spokeswoman Clare Harrington said from London that the publishers would file their defence with the court soon.

"We continue to be confident that the claimants' case is wholly without merit," she said.

Details of the allegations made by Baigent and Leigh remain sealed by the British court.

However there are clear links between Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code, even though the latter is a novel and the former a non-fiction study of secret religious history.

It also appears the identities of Baigent and his two co-authors have provided Brown with material for his characters.

Sir Leigh Teabing is a central character in The Da Vinci Code, but that name combines Richard Leigh's surname and an anagram of Baigent, and Sir Leigh's physical description is said to be similar to The Holy Blood's third co-author, Henry Lincoln.

Brown's hero is American professor of religious symbology Robert Langdon. Baigent has completed a masters degree that included a dissertation on Renaissance symbolism.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail has also sold millions of copies, and aroused controversy through its exploration of a theory that Jesus might not have died on the cross but lived, married and had children.

Their research explored whether a secret bloodline existed, and potentially challenged central foundations of Christianity - including the role of women.

It featured societies such as the Knights Templar and Priory of Sion, which are also core to mysteries within The Da Vinci Code.

Anger at Holy Blood, Holy Grail prompted death and bomb threats against the authors and publishers, and Baigent still keeps his address in England a secret.

He was reluctant to outline why he was taking legal action, but has told the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain that being "lumped in" with Brown's novel degraded the historical implications of their research.

"It makes our work far easier to dismiss as a farrago of nonsense.

"What a lot of people have forgotten was that the Holy Blood was a hypothesis," Baigent told the Weekend Herald this week.

"We had a lot of data that we were deeply suspicious of, and we spent a lot of time checking it.

"We managed to establish that a certain amount was shown to be correct; the rest was plausible."

Baigent, 56, has lived in the UK since 1976 but still visits home and family here most years.

Secret Theories

Holy Blood, Holy Grail: Non-fiction study of secret religious history. Explores theory that Jesus might not have died on the cross but lived, married and had children.

The Da Vinci Code: Fiction. A novel about secret religious societies, cover-ups and explorations of persistent riddles - from the Mona Lisa's smile to the mystery of the Holy Grail.

Sasha
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Also, The Da Vinci Code sold much more copies than the first one.
Is it true that George Clooney will star as Langdon?
 
I am so waiting for the movie. I loved the book and would love how will they immortalise that on screen. Although controversial, it is still up to the readers if they'll believe it or not.
I watched a special TDVC special on The NAtional Geogrpahis Channel. And it scrutinized the book every words, every pages.
 
I loved the movie. Of course, I had never read the book, so...I have no basis of comparison. :lol:
 
Maybe because it's bookish. My friend watched it and he said, it's so much like the book. That's a good thing for me (and for those who read and had visualized), but if what the critics meant was it didn't do good as a movie, then I can understand. Maybe I'll be a lil more biased because I already have the scenes on the back of my head, it's just a matter of seeing it on the big screen.
 
I hated Amelie but I thought Audrey was cute. I began disliking her in L'Auberge Espagnole and from there on she's like everywhere, I have no love her.

Plus the thought of her and Tom Hanks... I will need to see them in character but I can't see them as an "unofficial couple", Julie Delpy would've have been the better choice. She's wonderful and looks more like she'd belong in the world Dan Brown has created.

It's only my opinion, of course.
 
*hearts* Da Vinci Code. i loved it. there were some changes here and there but nothing too drastic. overall, i loved it. ^_^
 
I actually bough Angels & Demons before I found out about The Da Vinci code... Obviously, when the hype about The Da Vinci Code got to me I bought it and read it without having reading Angels & Demons. :rolleyes:

I began reading it earlier this year...and I still haven't finished it :lol: It's taking me more than 4 months to actually get into it. Now I can't finish reading because I have school.

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I always thought Robert Landgon would look more like Viggo Mortensen with shorter hair, brilliant yet mysterious. But I love Tom Hanks to pieces and I could never object to his involvement in anything. He has earned my unconditional appreciation.
 
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