Da Vinci Code Film Seeks Church Blessing
LONDON – Sony Pictures, the studio making the new film version of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel “The Da Vinci Code,” has sought for the blessing of the Catholic Church.
The move comes as an apparent attempt by the studio to bridge the gap to the devout audience caused by the great offence many believers took to the contents of the novel, which has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.
Some of the claims that the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church have strongly refuted include the novel’s controversial assertion that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute, with whom he had a child. In addition the Catholic Church has also criticized the villainous depiction of Catholic organization Opus Dei.
In the book, members of Opus Dei are portrayed as committers of unethical acts for the sake of God, the Church or Opus Dei. The Church, however, defends the organization as a Catholic institution that adheres to Catholic doctrine and condemns immoral behavior.
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Spokesman Brian Finnerty said the depiction of Opus Dei in the novel was completely inaccurate.
“We wrote to the studio, expressing our concern,” Finnerty said. “They sent back a reply that was polite but non-committal, but Opus Dei is completely unlike the portrayal in the novel.”
According to reports, Sony Pictures is so concerned about offending devout Catholics that it has sought advice from Catholic and other Christian specialists on how it might alter the plot of the novel in order to make it less offensive.
Film officials, in particular, have been in touch with the Catholic League, which has requested that Ron Howard, the film’s Oscar-winning director, include a disclaimer that acknowledges the film to be a fiction.
Sony Pictures has also been asked to consider removing the name Opus Dei from the film altogether as well as making the central premise – that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene – more ambiguous.
Despite Dan Brown’s insistence that the book is “only a novel and therefore a work of fiction,” the novel has already caused widespread controversy. In March, the Vatican appointed a cardinal to rebut what it dismissed as lies, distortions and errors.
Last month a Catholic website was also established to dispel the myths of the book and some facts about Mary Magdalene, as well as links to other sites that refute the claims made in the book.
The film version of “The Da Vinci Code,” which is currently under production, stars Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen and will be shot on location at Lincoln Cathedral in Lincolnshire, England, after permission to film at Westminster Abbey – where the novel is set – was refused in a snub to the book’s controversial assertions.
The Abbey dismissed the book as “theologically unsound.”
