Da Vinci's real-life cast
2006-05-12 08:48
London - The Da Vinci Code has received the kind of publicity money can't buy - thanks to a real-life cast including a cardinal, an archbishop, a judge, and countless art historians and religious scholars.
Pre-release hype is normal for a big Hollywood production. But in the case of Dan Brown's fictional hunt for the Holy Grail, the headlines have been dominated by events apparently beyond the control of Sony Pictures.
Stars like Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou have been largely hidden from the media spotlight in the run-up to the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17.
Instead, the Vatican has protested loudly against the novel and now the film.
Its protests have culminated in a cardinal calling for legal action against a story that says Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had a child by her, and whose descendants are alive today.
Opus Dei, the Catholic group portrayed as a secretive sect behind a conspiracy to hide the truth about Jesus and his bloodline, has demanded a disclaimer on the film making clear it is fiction, not fact.
'People are looking for alternatives'
This week, a senior official in the mainly Catholic Philippines has called on the government to ban the film.
Commentators say such pronouncements, and the stories they generate, are bound to backfire by generating extra interest in the film - and lend weight to the argument that the Catholic church has something to hide.
After the uproar over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in 2004, seen by some as potentially anti-Semitic, the film went on to gross $612m worldwide.
"At one end of the spectrum you have Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ saying: 'We know what happened 2 000 years ago and we are going to compel you to believe it'," said Dan Burstein, editor of Secrets of the Code.
"At the other extreme you have Dan Brown saying: 'Guess what? Everything you were told about what happened 2 000 years ago is probably wrong."
He said people seem to be looking for alternatives to organised religion at a time when fundamentalist Christianity and Islam have gained ground.
The controversy surrounding The Da Vinci Code has the cash tills ringing.
More than 40 million copies sold
Already a billion-dollar industry, "Da Vinci Inc" is set to expand with the release of the film.
More than 40 million copies of the novel have been sold and Brown's earlier works have become bestsellers.
Dozens of "Da Vinci Clones" have hit the bookshelves, some setting out to debunk the theories in the book, others seeking to repeat the winning combination of page turner and holy mystery.
Even lawyers have got in on the act. The bill for this year's plagiarism case in London's High Court - between two historians and Brown's British publisher - was £1.5m (about R18m).