Free Republic

In the late 1800s, Horace and Daeida Wilcox, decided to create a nice, quaint Christian community in southern California. It would serve no booze, and it would even give free land to churches (at least Protestant ones), so that righteousness could be proclaimed.By 1903, the bustling little city had enough voters---166 men---to officially incorporate. It was called Hollywood. Meanwhile, movies were first being created over on the east coast. For example, there were films made in New York City. But a pioneer motion picture maker, D. W. Griffith, found the Los Angeles area as the ideal place to make movies. What...

'Da Vinci Code' film may soften the novel's themes to avoid an almighty religious ruckus 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...