Sprinkling Holy Water on 'The Da Vinci Code' - New York Times

Sprinkling Holy Water on 'The Da Vinci Code' - New York Times: "ON the face of it, Hollywood projects don't get much simpler than 'The Da Vinci Code,' a movie being shot in Europe this summer, based on the international publishing phenomenon by Dan Brown. All the ingredients are there: a blockbuster book with 36 million copies in print, an Academy Award-winning team in the writer Akiva Goldsman and the director Ron Howard (for 'A Beautiful Mind'), and an Oscar perennial, Tom Hanks, in the lead, as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Sony Pictures, the studio behind the film, would seem well on its way to that rarest of successes: an adult-oriented franchise with a built-in audience and plenty of potential for sequels. But 'Da Vinci,' set for release in May, is shaping up as one of the movie world's more complicated exercises - so much so that Sony has dropped a scrim of secrecy over the affair, refusing to discuss anything but the barest details. The script has been closely controlled. Outsiders have been banned from the set. And those associated with the film have had to sign confidentiality agreements. 'There isn't a hidden agenda, there isn't any secrecy, it's just because it's so well known,' said Geoffrey Ammer, Sony's president of worldwide marketing, explaining the low profile. 'They've got a job to do to make the movie. It was easier for everybody to just go make the movie.' But executives and others connected with the project acknowledge that their silence is also a measure of concern about the potentially incendiary nature of the subject matter. The book, which is fiction, takes aim at central Christian dogma, claiming that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene, who was meant to be his true heir. It alleges an enormous coverup by the Roman Catholic Church, which, according to the book, usurped Mary's place in favor of a male-oriented hierarchy that has suppressed what Mr. Brown calls the 'sacred feminine.' Even before production began, the studio and the producers Brian Grazer and John Calley received letters from groups like the Catholic League and Opus Dei expressing concern. The Catholic League asked that Mr. Howard include a disclaimer acknowledging that the movie is fiction. Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group, was particularly worried about its own depiction, because it is a central villain in the book. 'The novel portrays Opus Dei in a completely inaccurate way; if the movie does the same thing it's something we'd be concerned about,' Brian Finnerty, a spokesman for the group, said. Studio officials have consulted with Catholic and other Christian specialists on how they might alter the plot of the novel to avoid offending the devout. In doing so, the studio has been asked to consider such measures as making the central premise - that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene - more ambiguous, and removing the name of Opus Dei."