'Da Vinci' film: What role for religion?
- From: pluto <pluto@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:00:21 +0800
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/05/news/davinci.php
'Da Vinci' film: What role for religion?
By Sharon Waxman The New York Times
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2005
LOS ANGELES On the face of it, Hollywood projects don't get much simpler
than "The Da Vinci Code," a movie being shot in Europe this summer, based
on the international publishing phenomenon by Dan Brown.
All the ingredients are there: a blockbuster book with 36 million copies in
print, an Academy Award-winning team in the writer Akiva Goldsman and the
director Ron Howard (for "A Beautiful Mind"), and an Oscar perennial, Tom
Hanks, in the lead, as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Sony Pictures,
the studio behind the film, would seem well on its way to that rarest of
successes: an adult-oriented film with a built-in audience.
But "Da Vinci," set for release in May, is shaping up as one of the movie
world's more complicated exercises - so much so that Sony has dropped a
scrim of secrecy over the affair, refusing to discuss anything but the
barest details. The script has been closely controlled. Outsiders have been
banned from the set. And those associated with the film have had to sign
confidentiality agreements.
"There isn't a hidden agenda, there isn't any secrecy; it's just because
it's so well known," said Geoffrey Ammer, Sony's president of worldwide
marketing, explaining the low profile. "They've got a job to do to make the
movie. It was easier for everybody to just go make the movie."
But executives and others connected with the project acknowledge that their
silence is also a measure of concern about the potentially incendiary
nature of the subject matter. The book, which is fiction, takes aim at
central Christian dogma, with a plot that claims Jesus had a child with
Mary Magdalene, who was meant to be his true heir. It describes an enormous
cover-up by the Roman Catholic Church, which, in the novel, usurped Mary's
place in favor of a male-oriented hierarchy that has suppressed what
Langdon calls the "sacred feminine."
Even before production began, the studio and the producers Brian Grazer and
John Calley received letters from groups like the Catholic League and Opus
Dei expressing concern.
The Catholic League asked that Howard include a disclaimer acknowledging
that the movie is fiction. Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group, was
particularly worried about its depiction as a central villain in the book.
"The novel portrays Opus Dei in a completely inaccurate way; if the movie
does the same thing, it's something we'd be concerned about," said Brian
Finnerty, a spokesman for the group.
Studio officials have consulted with Catholic and other Christian
specialists on how they might alter the plot of the novel to avoid
offending the devout. In doing so, the studio has been asked to consider
such measures as removing the name Opus Dei and making the central premise
- that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene - more ambiguous.
"The question I was asked was, 'Can you give them some things they can do
to change it to make it not offensive to the Christian audience?"' said
Barbara Nicolosi, executive director of Act One, an organization that
coaches Christians on making it in Hollywood. She said she was approached
by Jonathan Bock, a marketing expert hired by Sony for his knowledge of
Christian sensibilities, and included in the discussions Amy Welborn, who
has published a refutation of "The Da Vinci Code" titled "De-Coding Da
Vinci."
"We came up with three things," Nicolosi said: the more ambiguous approach
to the central premise, the removal of Opus Dei and changes in the book's
description of religious elements in art.
Welborn said, "If the script took those very strong assertions that Brown
makes, and softened them, made them more theoretical rather than bald
statements of fact, that might do something."
Bock declined to comment about his involvement with the film.
Whether the screenwriter has made any of those changes is uncertain, though
the studio has publicly hinted that the film is a thriller that will play
down religious themes.
But changing the plot of a beloved novel has its own hazards and risks
alienating the movie's built-in fan base - those millions of people
worldwide who devoured the book and made it, some claim, the most
successful book in history after the Bible. (Brown's agent, Heidi Lange,
said 36 million copies of "The Da Vinci Code" were in print.)
"There's no way you can take out the central point of the novel, that Jesus
married Mary Magdalene and the Catholic Church has done everything in its
power, including murdering millions of people, to cover it up," said Carl
Olson, co-author of "The Da Vinci Hoax," a book refuting the "The Da Vinci
Code." He predicted that many devout people would be offended "unless they
make a movie that bears a pale resemblance to the book, in which case
they'd have a lot of irritated fans."
Ammer, Sony's marketing president, said the studio would remain true to its
source. "My biggest concern is that we make a movie that is entertaining,
and that follows as close to the book as possible," he said. "It's not
about any particular group. It's about the mass appeal of the book. When
you read a good book, you say, 'I hope they don't ruin the movie."'
Calley, who was a Sony chairman before becoming a producer, said he
considered the film "conservatively anti-Catholic," as opposed to
destructively so. "Look at the book," he continued. "Yes, there are clerics
that ding it, but there are clerics that are supportive."
Like the novel, Calley said, the movie can be a tool for discussing the
origins of religion, even challenging its basic assumptions, which he said
is a good thing. "The amazing thing about this book is it's provocative: Is
it all true? Isn't it true?"
Calley was just exiting as chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment when he
made the deal to buy the rights to "The Da Vinci Code" in June 2003. He
relied on a long-standing friendship with Michael Rudell, Brown's lawyer,
to corner the rights by offering a pay package that could exceed $5 million
once the movie is released, according to people involved.
And though the book is labeled as fiction, Brown has written and said in
interviews that the tale is based on extensive research and historical
fact, including a 1982 nonfiction book, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael
Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which Brown cites as a source.
Many readers are convinced that "The Da Vinci Code" is largely true, though
cloaked in fiction. Some fans make pilgrimages to sites mentioned in the
book, including the Louvre and the Château de Villette in France and
Westminster Abbey in Britain. The movie production has been filming on
location in the Louvre and the château, but Westminster Abbey declined the
producers' request to shoot there, calling the book "theologically
unsound."
Among those who take the novel's revelations seriously is Olivia Hsu
Decker, a real estate agent who owns the Château de Villette and lived
there during the shoot in June and July. "This book revealed the truth that
the Catholics have been hiding for thousands of years," she said in a
telephone interview. "The book is fiction, but it's based on truth."
Decker added, "The book kind of explains to the world how the Catholic
Church demonized women such as Mary Magdalene, and also have killed
millions of women during the Crusades."
In searching for a middle road through this thicket of competing agendas,
Sony has opted to say nothing, at least for the moment. And there are signs
that the studio has not ruled out attracting religious moviegoers,
including those who made an international sensation last year of Mel
Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ."
"The phrase I heard used several times was 'Passion dollars'; they want to
try to get the 'Passion' dollars if they can," said Nicolosi, referring to
her conversations about the film. "They're wrong," she added. "It's
sacrilegious, irreligious. They're thinking they can ride the 'Passion'
wave with this. And I said, 'Are you kidding me?"'
LOS ANGELES On the face of it, Hollywood projects don't get much simpler
than "The Da Vinci Code," a movie being shot in Europe this summer, based
on the international publishing phenomenon by Dan Brown.
All the ingredients are there: a blockbuster book with 36 million copies in
print, an Academy Award-winning team in the writer Akiva Goldsman and the
director Ron Howard (for "A Beautiful Mind"), and an Oscar perennial, Tom
Hanks, in the lead, as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Sony Pictures,
the studio behind the film, would seem well on its way to that rarest of
successes: an adult-oriented film with a built-in audience.
But "Da Vinci," set for release in May, is shaping up as one of the movie
world's more complicated exercises - so much so that Sony has dropped a
scrim of secrecy over the affair, refusing to discuss anything but the
barest details. The script has been closely controlled. Outsiders have been
banned from the set. And those associated with the film have had to sign
confidentiality agreements.
"There isn't a hidden agenda, there isn't any secrecy; it's just because
it's so well known," said Geoffrey Ammer, Sony's president of worldwide
marketing, explaining the low profile. "They've got a job to do to make the
movie. It was easier for everybody to just go make the movie."
But executives and others connected with the project acknowledge that their
silence is also a measure of concern about the potentially incendiary
nature of the subject matter. The book, which is fiction, takes aim at
central Christian dogma, with a plot that claims Jesus had a child with
Mary Magdalene, who was meant to be his true heir. It describes an enormous
cover-up by the Roman Catholic Church, which, in the novel, usurped Mary's
place in favor of a male-oriented hierarchy that has suppressed what
Langdon calls the "sacred feminine."
Even before production began, the studio and the producers Brian Grazer and
John Calley received letters from groups like the Catholic League and Opus
Dei expressing concern.
The Catholic League asked that Howard include a disclaimer acknowledging
that the movie is fiction. Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group, was
particularly worried about its depiction as a central villain in the book.
"The novel portrays Opus Dei in a completely inaccurate way; if the movie
does the same thing, it's something we'd be concerned about," said Brian
Finnerty, a spokesman for the group.
Studio officials have consulted with Catholic and other Christian
specialists on how they might alter the plot of the novel to avoid
offending the devout. In doing so, the studio has been asked to consider
such measures as removing the name Opus Dei and making the central premise
- that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene - more ambiguous.
"The question I was asked was, 'Can you give them some things they can do
to change it to make it not offensive to the Christian audience?"' said
Barbara Nicolosi, executive director of Act One, an organization that
coaches Christians on making it in Hollywood. She said she was approached
by Jonathan Bock, a marketing expert hired by Sony for his knowledge of
Christian sensibilities, and included in the discussions Amy Welborn, who
has published a refutation of "The Da Vinci Code" titled "De-Coding Da
Vinci."
"We came up with three things," Nicolosi said: the more ambiguous approach
to the central premise, the removal of Opus Dei and changes in the book's
description of religious elements in art.
Welborn said, "If the script took those very strong assertions that Brown
makes, and softened them, made them more theoretical rather than bald
statements of fact, that might do something."
Bock declined to comment about his involvement with the film.
Whether the screenwriter has made any of those changes is uncertain, though
the studio has publicly hinted that the film is a thriller that will play
down religious themes.
But changing the plot of a beloved novel has its own hazards and risks
alienating the movie's built-in fan base - those millions of people
worldwide who devoured the book and made it, some claim, the most
successful book in history after the Bible. (Brown's agent, Heidi Lange,
said 36 million copies of "The Da Vinci Code" were in print.)
"There's no way you can take out the central point of the novel, that Jesus
married Mary Magdalene and the Catholic Church has done everything in its
power, including murdering millions of people, to cover it up," said Carl
Olson, co-author of "The Da Vinci Hoax," a book refuting the "The Da Vinci
Code." He predicted that many devout people would be offended "unless they
make a movie that bears a pale resemblance to the book, in which case
they'd have a lot of irritated fans."
Ammer, Sony's marketing president, said the studio would remain true to its
source. "My biggest concern is that we make a movie that is entertaining,
and that follows as close to the book as possible," he said. "It's not
about any particular group. It's about the mass appeal of the book. When
you read a good book, you say, 'I hope they don't ruin the movie."'
Calley, who was a Sony chairman before becoming a producer, said he
considered the film "conservatively anti-Catholic," as opposed to
destructively so. "Look at the book," he continued. "Yes, there are clerics
that ding it, but there are clerics that are supportive."
Like the novel, Calley said, the movie can be a tool for discussing the
origins of religion, even challenging its basic assumptions, which he said
is a good thing. "The amazing thing about this book is it's provocative: Is
it all true? Isn't it true?"
Calley was just exiting as chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment when he
made the deal to buy the rights to "The Da Vinci Code" in June 2003. He
relied on a long-standing friendship with Michael Rudell, Brown's lawyer,
to corner the rights by offering a pay package that could exceed $5 million
once the movie is released, according to people involved.
And though the book is labeled as fiction, Brown has written and said in
interviews that the tale is based on extensive research and historical
fact, including a 1982 nonfiction book, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael
Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, which Brown cites as a source.
Many readers are convinced that "The Da Vinci Code" is largely true, though
cloaked in fiction. Some fans make pilgrimages to sites mentioned in the
book, including the Louvre and the Château de Villette in France and
Westminster Abbey in Britain. The movie production has been filming on
location in the Louvre and the château, but Westminster Abbey declined the
producers' request to shoot there, calling the book "theologically
unsound."
Among those who take the novel's revelations seriously is Olivia Hsu
Decker, a real estate agent who owns the Château de Villette and lived
there during the shoot in June and July. "This book revealed the truth that
the Catholics have been hiding for thousands of years," she said in a
telephone interview. "The book is fiction, but it's based on truth."
Decker added, "The book kind of explains to the world how the Catholic
Church demonized women such as Mary Magdalene, and also have killed
millions of women during the Crusades."
In searching for a middle road through this thicket of competing agendas,
Sony has opted to say nothing, at least for the moment. And there are signs
that the studio has not ruled out attracting religious moviegoers,
including those who made an international sensation last year of Mel
Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ."
"The phrase I heard used several times was 'Passion dollars'; they want to
try to get the 'Passion' dollars if they can," said Nicolosi, referring to
her conversations about the film. "They're wrong," she added. "It's
sacrilegious, irreligious. They're thinking they can ride the 'Passion'
wave with this. And I said, 'Are you kidding me?"'
===================================================
[pn: i have commented on the above book last month, read also the
"la vinci hoax"]
cheers
pluto
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