groovergrl23
Cadet
I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Nadine
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 making the central premise — that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene — more ambiguous, and removing the name of Opus Dei.
"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 amending errors 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 picture.
Whether the screenwriter, Goldsman, 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 E. 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.'"
OH NO. He better not. (But for me it's coz that would be sinking too low for him.)and jim carrey possibly playing silas....that would ruin it, i can't imagine him playing that role
Christians: Embracing the Code
Newsweek
April 3, 2006 issue - Julie Scheving, a 46-year-old resident of Holland, Mich., doesn't believe the decision to open "The Da Vinci Code" on May 19 happened by chance—she believes it was an act of God. The movie opens on her birthday, and Scheving, a born-again Christian, is planning on using the occasion to buy tickets for at least a dozen of her "unchurched" friends. Though the movie's claims about Christianity run contrary to Scheving's beliefs, she's looking forward to initiating a discussion about the true nature of Jesus Christ. "Any spiritual conversation is better than no spiritual conversation," she says.
Instead of planning boycotts or staging protests, many Christians are looking to use the film as a tool for evangelism—and there's an increasing number of books, DVDs and study guides on the market to help them do it. Campus Crusade for Christ, an interdenominational network of campus ministries, created a 20-page magazine disputing the movie's claims and professing Christian beliefs. The organization is printing more than a million copies, which will be given free to unbelievers and can be bought at cost by Christians. Outreach, a provider of church evangelism tools, is selling dozens of items, from bulk direct-mail postcards—"Got Questions?" one reads, showing a picture of the Mona Lisa with a milk mustache—to bookings with New Testament scholars.
This is an unusual response from a community that has, in the past, reacted defensively to movies that were demeaning to the faith. Mike Licona, director of Apologetics at the North American Mission Board, was at the forefront of boycott efforts against "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988. "I think it was a mistake," he says. "It created the impression that we weren't interested in truth or critical discussion." This time around, he's encouraging Christians to take unbelievers to the movie. The film's being marketed, after all, with the tag line "Seek the Truth."
—Elise Soukup