Posted on 12/18/2005 5:29:39 PM PST by wagglebee
Filmmaker Ron Howard says that the upcoming movie based on Dan Brown's mega-hit novel "The Da Vinci Code" will not soften the story's more controversial elements. There will be "no placating," he tells Newsweek in its annual "Who's Next" double issue, which names the up-and-comers in politics, business, science, sports and the arts that will make headlines in 2006. "It would be ludicrous to take on this subject and then try to take the edges off. We're doing this movie because we like the book," he says.
Since "The Da Vinci Code" was published in 2003, the book has become a global industry, spawning everything from critical documentaries to reverential bus tours. It has also been condemned by the Vatican for disseminating falsehoods about the Roman Catholic Church. The cult of "The Da Vinci Code" will reach new heights with the release of Columbia Pictures's $125 million film version, starring Tom Hanks and an international cast led by Jean Reno and Audrey Tautou. In their first interview for the movie, director Howard, producer Brian Grazer and the cast open up to Senior Writer Devin Gordon in the Dec. 26-Jan. 2 issue cover story "The Da Vinci Code" (on newsstands Monday, Dec. 19) about filming at the Louvre, responding to the story's critics and preparing for the anticipated international media frenzy upon the film's release in May 2006.
Howard and Grazer describe one of the more unusual visits they paid to secure rights to film at the Louvre: the office of French President Jacques Chirac. "We thought it was going to be a five-minute thing, like a trip to the Oval Office -- a photo and a handshake," says Grazer. But Chirac asked them to sit down and get comfortable. Coffee was poured. They ended up staying close to an hour. Chirac insisted that his guests alert him if their request to film at the Louvre hit any snags. Not only that, he offered some pointers. He suggested they cast his daughter's best friend -- an actress of some acclaim in France -- in the role of Sophie Neveu, the elegant young cryptographer at the heart of the book's mystery (the part ultimately went to Tautou). And he wondered aloud, half seriously, if they could sweeten the paycheck for Reno. "That was hilarious," says Howard. "Fortunately the deal was already closed."
Six months later, Howard and the rest swarmed into the Louvre and set up shop for a week of night shoots. Paris in July offers, at most, seven hours of true darkness -- from about 10 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. -- so there was little time to stop and gape at the treasures. But everyone made sure to take a moment. "The clock's ticking, I've only got so much time to get a lot done, but even still, every once in a while, I would stop in front of, say, John the Baptist's severed head, and for just a second, I'd let myself remember where I was working," says Howard. "That was nice." Hanks's trailer was parked on a street outside the museum, requiring him to hike through countless silent galleries to reach the set. "It was a great walk to work, I'll tell you that," he says. "You're walking past 'The Coronation of the Empress Josephine,' 'Leonidas at Thermopylae' -- just one masterpiece after another."
I'm convinced that Chirac expects a bribe at every possible opportunity.
Ping.
"We're doing this movie because we like the book,"
TRANSLATION: "Hey, this is Hollywoood & anything that makes the Catholic Church look bad is ok by me!!"
"We thought it was going to be a five-minute thing, like a trip to the Oval Office -- a photo and a handshake," says Grazer. But Chirac asked them to sit down and get comfortable. Coffee was poured.
cant help taking a little shot there could they
I'm sure if they could figure out a way to blame it all on Bush they would do that too!
No placating in a film production of an anticatholic equivalent to the conspiracy of the elders of zions?
Gasp! Who woulda thought! (sarc/off)
"And he wondered aloud, half seriously, if they could sweeten the paycheck for Reno."
Cultural misunderstanding, misread by Mr. Howard.
Their was no "half" about it.
Maybe, one day, if you are being wronged....you can assume it's due to something you've done before. Great job living up to your namesake.
I'm being wronged? ok.
There has been no coercive anti-heresy laws supported by a government with an established church for at least a century in most places. We live in a society with full freedom of religion, which the Church embraced in the Vatican II Council by the way, and yet you feel that beating up on the Catholic Church for actions or alleged actions in the past is perfectly acceptable. It would be nice if you anti-Catholic bigots could at least complain about the Church as it is now and not what happened centuries ago.
God works in mysterious ways!!!!
I guess all the child molesting and the Archbishops ignoring the problem for a couple of decades is ancient history.
"It would be nice if you anti-Catholic bigots could at least complain about the Church as it is now and not what happened centuries ago."
It'd be nicer if they were just not bigots to begin with. As long as you're fantasizing, might as well wish for a sunny day instead of lighter rain. 8)
The fact that Hollyweird has an agenda here is illustrated in no better way than that they decided to make this insipid piece of garbage into a movie. Brown may be one of the most highly overrated authors in all of Western culture. His books are pointless and sophomorically written and I've read fiction by seventh-graders that was of higher qaulity than anything he has written.
What does that have to do with coercive measures against heretics?
I feel the christian "love". lol.
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