The New York Daily News reports that the film version of The Da Vinci Code may downplay the book’s anti-Catholic elements:
In Hollywood, as the old adage goes, bad books often make great movies. In fact, the pulpier the fiction, the better the final result (think “The Bourne Identity” or “The Bridgesof Madison County”), because then the movie adapters feel no qualms about making significant improvements.
So it’ll be fascinating to see how closely the team behind the 1995 smash “Apollo 13” – star Tom Hanks, director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer – will hew to Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” which started production in Paris on Wednesday. . . .
Word is that screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Cinderella Man”) is making plenty of changes – and that downplaying author Brown’s anti-Catholic theme is one of them.
For example, the Catholic organization Opus Dei will not play a significant role in the movie, according to one of the select few who have read one of the carefully numbered scripts. “They’re not out to make a religious movie,” he says. . . .
“People felt that ‘The Passion’ was the expression of deeply held religious belief,” says one of several high-powered publicity consultants who have been hired by Columbia to help manipulate the expected “Da Vinci Code” controversy. “No one is saying that about [this] movie. It’s an entertaining what-if thriller.”
Controlling that controversy will be the key for Columbia in protecting its investment. That’s why its team of PR experts are sending the message that it will be an enjoyable “popcorn” fiction.
Hmmm. Given that at least one publicist with ties to the Christian community has been hired in connection with this film — not necessarily to “promote” it but to, as it were, bring Christians to “the table” (but whose table? who’s setting the places? who’s in charge of the menu?) — it could be really interesting to know who the anonymous “high-powered publicity consultant” is.
Meanwhile, a sidebar speculates that the Catholic church will not risk drawing more attention to the film by mounting protests against it, though it has raised concerns in the past that people might take the novel’s truth claims literally (as indeed many do, if a poll taken in Canada two weeks ago is any indication).
But with regard to both sides of this debate — the filmmakers and the clerics — and whether they’ll be toning everything down when the film comes out, all I can say is, We shall see. I mean, the film won’t be out for another year, so it’s a little early to say.
(Side note: the main article says the Catholic church has “attacked” the Harry Potter books “for promoting pagan sorcery,” but I, for one, have never heard of such an attack, and I’ve been writing about the Harry Potter debates for several years now.)
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