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Posted: Tue., May 16, 2006, 5:40pm PT The Da Vinci Code A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment presentation of a Brian Grazer/John Calley production. Produced by Grazer, Calley. Executive producers, Todd Hallowell, Dan Brown. Directed by Ron Howard. Screenplay, Akiva Goldsman, based on the book by Dan Brown. Robert Langdon - Tom Hanks Sophie Neveu - Audrey Tautou Sir Leigh Teabing - Ian McKellen Captain Bezu Fache - Jean Reno Silas - Paul Bettany Bishop Aringarosa - Alfred Molina Vernet - Jurgen Prochnow Remy Jean - Jean-Yves Berteloot Lt. Collet - Etienne Chicot Jacques...

Bowing to pressure from Christian groups, the Indian government has decided to review federal censors' permission for the screening of The Da Vinci Code movie in India. The controversial film was set to hit Indian cinemas on May 19, but three days before its release, a federal minister said the government would give the nod only if Catholic Church officials give their approval.

The Davinsky Code By Jeff Dunetz The story of a 2,000 year-old scroll and a secretive society that continues to operate within Jewry Almost 2000 years ago, a clandestine society was formed in what is now Iran. Since it was created, the group, called Opus Vey, has operated as a kind of shadow Sanhedrin, debating and creating revisions to Jewish law. Today the group still exists, run by direct descendants of the founders who set up the Society. I found out about Opus Vey when some friends sent me copies of recently uncovered documents from the group. These documents talk...

Apparently, the reviews of Tom Hanks latest movie have been less than kind. Maybe his new look is behind it all...

Quotes from early reviews of "The DaVinci Code" at Cannes:"CANNES, France - "The Da Vinci Code" drew lukewarm praise, shrugs of indifference, some jeering laughter and a few derisive jabs Tuesday from arguably the world's toughest movie crowd: critics at the Cannes Film Festival.""One especially melodramatic line uttered by Hanks drew prolonged laughter and some catcalls, and the audience continued to titter for much of the film's remainder. Some people walked out during the movie's closing minutes, though there were fewer departures than many Cannes movies provoke among harsh critics. When the credits rolled, there were a few whistles and...

by Mark Finkelstein May 17, 2006 If the Da Vinci Code was already feeding the flames of controversy with its challenge to the basic tenets of Christianity, actor Ian McKellen managed to throw a refinery tank's worth of gasoline on the fire on this morning's Today show, asserting that the Bible should carry a disclaimer saying that it is "fiction." Matt Lauer, on his second day "On The Road With The Code," was in Cannes for the film festival, where the Code will have its debut. It has already been screened to some critics, who have given it decidedly mixed...

Betty Christensen doesn’t know how many people will join her, but she plans to stand in protest Friday outside the Elk Grove Theatre as “The Da Vinci Code” debuts. Rain or shine, she will pray the rosary, sing religious hymns and hold a sign that says, “Stop Blasphemy.” “I’m going out there in defense of our Catholic faith and beliefs,” Christensen said. “What the movie and the book said … it’s all lies. It’s very offensive.” Dodie Przybycien will do the same at the Woodridge Theater Friday, although the Clarendon Hills woman also will hand out fliers about Jesus and...

The best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code has seriously damaged people's faith in the Christian Church, a survey has found.Two thirds of Britons who have read Dan Brown's thriller believe that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, a claim rejected as baseless by historians and Bible scholars. Those who have read it are also four times as likely to think that the conservative Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, whose members include the Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly, is a murderous sect. Seventeen per cent of readers are convinced that the lay group, whose founder was canonised by the late Pope...

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Journalists gave eagerly awaited film "The Da Vinci Code" a cool reception at its first press screening on Tuesday, a day ahead of the world premiere of the adaptation of Dan Brown's controversial novel. The release of the big-budget Hollywood thriller has already prompted a wave of protests from Christians across the world who believe the theories put forward in the novel are blasphemous. One of the central characters suggests Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and they established a dynasty which elements within the Church would stop at nothing to try to cover up. The outcry...

"The Da Vinci Code" drew lukewarm praise, shrugs of indifference, some jeering laughter and a few derisive jabs Tuesday from arguably the world's toughest movie crowd: critics at the Cannes Film Festival. The year's most anticipated movie, "The Da Vinci Code" was a generally faithful adaptation of Dan Brown's monster best seller, spinning a murder thriller that stems from a cover-up of secrets about Christianity's roots. While readers worldwide devoured the novel, reaction from Cannes critics ranged from mild endorsement of its potboiler suspense to groans of ridicule over its heavy melodrama. "It's a movie about whether the greatest story...

If "such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust," said Archbishop Angelo Amato, the Vatican's secretary for the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, "they would have justly provoked a world uprising." The archbishop was speaking of "The Da Vinci Code," the Ron Howard film that debuts at Cannes and opens worldwide this week, and is expected to gross $500 million by summer's end. The archbishop's point is undeniable. Blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban, published a few months ago in a Danish newspaper and reprinted on the front...

“The Da Vinci Code” has undermined faith in the Roman Catholic Church and badly damaged its credibility, a survey of British readers revealed Tuesday as tensions over — and hype for — the forthcoming film reached a fever pitch. As its stars off headed to walk the red carpet at Cannes, where the film was set to debut Wednesday before a worldwide release Friday, at least two countries limited the film's release. The British survey, released by a group of prominent Catholics, revealed that readers of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel are twice as likely to believe Jesus Christ fathered children...

Christians win right to censor Da Vinci Code The police censorship committee in charge of movies has agreed to censor the climax of the movie The Da Vinci Code, even though the distributor promised to put a special notice on all copies stating the film was a work of fiction. Thai censors and a group claiming to represent Thai Christians watched the movie today. After the special showing, police agreed to cut the last 10 minutes of the film. A spokesman for the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand told the AP that the group objects to the part of the film...

Tom Hanks and other stars of "The Da Vinci Code" left London for the much-anticipated movie's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France, aboard a special Eurostar train. The train, repainted with the face of the Mona Lisa, was hoping to enter the record books by making the longest international non-stop rail journey on the 1,421-kilometre (883-mile) route. Dan Brown, who wrote the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code", joined the film version's director Ron Howard and actors Hanks, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina and Paul Bettany on the journey to the southern French coast. The film was...

New Delhi: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said that the film, Da Vinci Code will not be given clearance till it is screened before the Catholic Churches Association of India. Over 200 organisations have submitted their pleas against the screening of the film to Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi. An Information and Broadcasting Ministry official has said that Dasmunsi will sought the opinion of the concerned organisations before relasing the movie in India. Meanwhile, Goa government has passed a resolution to ban the movie, Da Vinci Code and has also asked the Centre to impose a nationwide ban.

by Mark Finkelstein May 16, 2006 Let's be clear: the Da Vinci Code portrays Christianity as a fraud and the Roman Catholic Church as a murderous conspiracy. As Archbishop Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office which was headed by Pope Benedict until his election last year recently stated, if "such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising." Yet the Today show has decided to offer the movie, scheduled for release this week, untold millions in free advertising by devoting hours of, um,...

It's hard to say which is hotter: anticipation of "The Da Vinci Code," which opens Friday, or the impassioned controversy surrounding the portrayal of Catholicism in the novel by Dan Brown. What seems to have escaped notice, however, are the religious and historical fallacies the book presents regarding Leonardo da Vinci's works -- the basis for the "code" on which the story rests. In the preface of the novel, Brown writes under the heading "fact" that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." This is not the case. Italian Renaissance scholar Sarah Blake...

Billboard ads for "The Da Vinci Code" have been urging us to "Seek the truth." I only wish Sony Pictures had taken its own advice. "The Da Vinci Code's" misrepresentations about Christ, Christianity and the Catholic Church are anything but helpful in the goal of finding out what's true. The same could be said of "The Da Vinci Code's" fictional portrait of Opus Dei. What do we Opus Dei members have in common with Silas, the murderous albino monk of "The Da Vinci Code"? I have been a member of Opus Dei for almost 50 years and can say with...

"Catholics Are Victims of an Offense" ROME, MAY 15, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The press office of the Opus Dei Prelature sent this statement to ZENIT on Friday in response to comments by the director of the soon-to-be-released film "The Da Vinci Code." * * * On Thursday the Italian press published interviews with Ron Howard, director of "The Da Vinci Code" film. In statements attributed to him, Howard said that "to deny the right to see the film is a fascist act," and also "to tell someone not to go see the film is an act of militancy and militancy generates...

Michael Medved discussing troops on the border first hour. He's not happy with it. Thinks it's a PR stunt.