Plus: Tom Hanks is lobbying hard for an old co-star of his to take on the coveted role of "Sophie":
Posted on 11/14/2004 11:55:11 AM PST by wagglebee
Tom Hanks has been pegged to play the lead role in Sony's upcoming film "The Da Vinci Code," the adaptation of author Dan Brown's best-selling thriller, Newsweek has learned.
Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, the duo who helped make Hanks a star with their 1984 comedy "Splash" and rehired him 11 years later for "Apollo 13," cast Hanks as the globe-trotting scholar Robert Langdon, a decision based partially on the cerebral (riddle-solving, code-cracking) nature of the action in "Da Vinci," Newsweek reports in its Nov. 22 issue (on newsstands Monday, Nov. 15).
"Tom is an exciting actor to watch thinking," Howard tells General Editor Devin Gordon. "We probably don't need his status from a box-office standpoint" – by now, "The Da Vinci Code" sells itself – "but he gives Langdon instant legitimacy."
Howard and Grazer are taking their time casting "Da Vinci," but plan to hire foreign actors to play the book's foreign characters. "If there's any book that's supposed to be an international thriller, says Grazer, "this is it."
Grazer tells Newsweek that one recent Oscar winner inquired about the role of Parisian cryptologist Sophie Neveu, "and she could easily do it. But I think the audience would be let down a bit. They expect a French girl." As for the role of bullish cop Bezu Fache, Gordon reports that Jean Reno is on Grazer's short list.
Grazer first got wind of "The Da Vinci Code" early in 2003, when Joel Surnow – creator of the acclaimed TV series "24" – thought "Da Vinci" would make a terrific story line for the show's third season. Surnow asked his boss, Grazer, to look into acquiring the rights, Newsweek reports. But as Brown had no intention of handing over his book to a mere TV show, Grazer says that "it quickly became clear that we had no chance." A few months later Sony paid $6 million for the movie rights – and hired Grazer as the producer for the biggest film adaptation since "Harry Potter."
The 53-year-old Grazer, who also paired with Howard on the Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind," has several upcoming projects on his slate, including an animated "Curious George" film with Will Ferrell and "Fun with Dick and Jane" starring Jim Carrey. Grazer also is producing a documentary about the notorious skinflick "Deep Throat," Gordon reports. Due out in February, it may be the first NC-17 movie released by a major studio in years.
Great movie for Christians to stay away from.
Silly premise, shallow characters and worse dialogue. It isn't impossible to make a good movie out of an awful book though. Case in point is The Bridges of Madison County. The book was drivel. The movie was lots better. Of course it did have Clint Eastwood. ;)
"Philadelphia" was his worst anti-christian movie.
He doesn't get it.
Sadly, this story is an excellent story. It's a great read. However, I completely disagree with Brown's conclusions.
It's just a story. It's fiction.
Whats the premise of the book? How is it anti-christian?
I hadn't heard that Howard/Grazer were doing the DaVinci Code, they should make an outstanding movie. Tom Hanks is not the person I ever associated with the lead character though.
It basically says that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ, and that they had children that eventually became the Merovingian line of Kings of France. It also says that the Holy Grail is actually not a cup at all but Mary Magdalene herself.
The book says that this is not accepted as fact today because of a far-reaching Church conspiracy to suppress women. Or something like that.
It's just fiction, not intended as a scholarly work.
However, it was clearly plagarized from the 1983 "non-fiction" book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", which has since been widely discredited as a complete hoax.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0440136482/qid=1100462553/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-1817270-5536101
Plus: Tom Hanks is lobbying hard for an old co-star of his to take on the coveted role of "Sophie":
I disagree on it being a great story. I had tried one of Brown's earlier books (Digital Fortress, maybe?) and found the writing downright juvenile, mid-grade to YA level stuff. I decided to give him another chance and bought the DaVinci Code. Took it with me on a Hawaiian cruise as my primary read. At first I was very impressed by how much his writing had improved, how well paced it was, how engaging. Then he gradually and cleverly slipped out of storytelling and into preaching his anti-Christian dreck, which he of course implied via the novel's introduction to be well researched fact. I threw it into the ocean and watched it disappear in the frothy wake of the ship.
MM
ok, call me a tard but is the da vinci code all about?
The entire premise of the book is that everything we have been taught about Christ's life, death and resurrection has been a lie. It alleges that the Catholic Church has conspired throughout the past 2000 years to hide the truth.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385504209/qid=1100462725/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-1817270-5536101
Oh... wait. Wait. "... Jean Reno," he said. JEAN Reno. :)
It makes sense that Hollywood would want to turn that premise into a movie.
IMHO with the exception of "Philadelphia," Hanks has kept his personal politics out of his movies, which I think has helped his popularity.
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