THE SECRETS OF THE CODE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM IS ABOUT TO BE LAUNCHED ON DVD.

Look for it June 5, 2007. Here is the press release from Sony:



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Academy Award® Winner Susan Sarandon Narrates

SECRETS OF THE CODE

Debuting on DVD June 5

Based on Best-Selling Book by Dan Burstein,
Feature-Length Documentary Includes Interviews and Commentary by Renowned Scholars, Theologians, Scientists and Historians


CULVER CITY, CALIF. (March 26, 2007) – Academy Award® winning actress Susan Sarandon (Best Actress, Dead Man Walking, 1996) narrates the feature-length documentary Secrets of the Code, debuting on DVD June 5 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Based on writer Dan Burstein’s best-selling book of the same name, this documentary looks at the controversy in the bestselling novel and blockbuster film The Da Vinci Code and explores of some of the world’s greatest mysteries. The DVD will be available for $24.96 SRP.

Secrets of the Code explores the global obsession resulting from The Da Vinci Code, the fastest-selling adult novel in the history of publishing. This documentary examines the importance of religion in today’s world and also tours the mysteries surrounding the ancient signs and symbols, the true identity of Mary Magdalene, Leonardo da Vinci, the Gnostic Gospels, the meaning of the search for the Holy Grail in history, and the facts concerning the so-called secret societies including the Freemasons, Priory of Sion and Opus Dei.

The film includes interviews and commentary by renowned scholars, theologians, scientists and historians, including Timothy Freke, Richard Leigh, Sean Martin and Elaine Pagels.

First published in hardcover in 2004, the book Secrets of the Code was a worldwide bestseller, appearing in 28 foreign editions. With two million copies now in print, it has outsold all the other guidebooks to The Da Vinci Code combined.

DVD Special Features Include:
• 1.85 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
• Audio: English 5.1
• Subtitles: English, French
• Color/Closed Captioned

DVD Catalog # 17268
UPC Code: 0-43396-17268-5
Order Date: 5/3/07
SLP: $24.96

Contact: Staci Griesbach Contact: Leif Helland
Company: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Company: Carl Samrock Public Relations
Phone: (310) 244-6903 Phone: (818) 260-0777
E-mail: staci_griesbach@spe.sony.com Email: leifhelland@cs-pr.com

-sphe-

OUR NEW BOOK, SECRETS OF MARY MAGDALENE, IS JUST OUT

If you have found Secrets of the Code of interest, I am sure you will find our new book of diverse and fascinating viewpoints on Mary Magdalene of interest as well. For more informnation, visit:

www.perseusbookspromos.com/somm/

or our newest website:

www.SecretsOfMaryMagdalene.com

The book is available from amazon.com and at most bookstores.

Our Secrets of Mary Magdalene documentary DVD also starts shipping soon.

Please post any reactions here!

WHAT'S UP WITH THE DEVIL IN THE TITLES OF BOOKS?

Last week's New York Times Book Review features at least four titles that include the word "devil": The Devil Wears Prada (paperback fiction bestseller list), The Devil in the White City (paperback nonfiction bestseller), The Devil of Nanking (a new and noteworthy paperback edition of a novel), and The Devil is a Gentleman (full scale review of a very interesting nonfiction book about religiosity in America). Then of course Dan Brown's Angels & Demons is still on the paperback fiction bestseller list too. This is surely a record--and a sign of the times.

YOU ARE INVITED to comment on The Da Vinci Code

I am looking for the most interesting, unusual (but substantive), thought-provoking comments about either the Da Vinci Code novel or the film.Please post here, try to keep to 500 words or less, and I will edit a bunch of them to run over the next few weeks.

--Dan

MONA SPEAKS

According to a Reuters dispatch today, a Japanese acoustics expert who specializes in voice-related technologies, has simulated the likely voice quality of the women who posed for Leonardo da Vinci's famously mysterious Mona Lisa painting. According to Reuters correspondent Toshi Maeda:

Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.

"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."

The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.

"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm (Note: I recommend you visit this web site, which appears in Japanese, but just click on Mona Lisa and seh will speak to you in haunting Italian--talking about who she might actually be. The voice quality is really interesting--DB).

"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.

The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.

"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."

Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.

The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.

Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.

THE NY TIMES LOOKS AT GOD IN TODAY'S MOVIES--AND DOESN'T FIND A PROFOUND MESSAGE:

The New york Times today looks at the Da Vinci Code and other films that tackle the subject of God, and seems disappointed to find that this trend is more like another Hollywood fashion than a spiritual quest. Here are some choice quotes from the article:

You don't believe in God?" Tom Hanks's character asks Audrey Tautou, who plays his partner-in-ciphers in "The Da Vinci Code."

"Do you believe in God?" Liev Schreiber's character asks a therapist who doubts that his adopted son, Damien, has devil genes in the new version of "The Omen."

"Get right with God," William Hurt preaches in the small, intense film "The King," but he's playing an evangelical minister, so he's a lot more certain.

With echo upon echo of faith-based dialogue, movie theaters today often sound like church. But what seems like a new willingness to explore questions of faith — as if Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" had made religion safe for Hollywood — has the spiritual depth of the "Daily Show" segment "This Week in God," with its quiz-show-style "God Machine" that spits out religions to satirize.

"The Passion" may have proved that religion could be marketed to a large audience, but the current films use religion merely as a topical hook. "The Da Vinci Code" is a mystery whose largest theme is not Jesus' divinity but the possible corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, a subject more political than spiritual. "The Omen" (set to open June 6) is a flat-out genre movie, a remake of the 1976 thriller that happens to hinge on the idea that a little boy is the devil's son. Even a more thoughtful film like "The King," with Gael García Bernal as the illegitimate son of the minister, is less about religion than hypocrisy: can the born-again minister live what he preaches?

What's surprising — especially in a country with a politically organized religious right — is the skepticism running through these films. Institutional religion is often villainous here, while genuine matters of faith are given the familiar Hollywood bromide treatment.

The current wave of religious-themed films doesn't speak to the audience's beliefs, but to its taste for pop entertainment, like "Da Vinci." That film's enormous box office seems to be holding up; the novel is already a cultural phenomenon, and it is even less about faith than the movie is. What sets the book apart from other best sellers is its subject: Did the Catholic Church murder through the centuries to cover up the idea that Jesus was mortal and had a child? The book's potted history lessons about Knights Templar and the sacred feminine follow an old publishing formula: novels that make people think they're learning can draw readers who don't usually like novels. But it's the tantalizing centuries-long cover-up that drives the page-turning chases and murders.

And while the movie's fidelity to the book is the flaw that makes it seem like some lifeless, illustrated version of the swifter novel, one of the film's biggest departures is its blunter dialogue about faith. Akiva Goldsman's leaden script, not Dan Brown's novel, has Robert Langdon (Mr. Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (Ms. Tautou) stop for a chat about whether a deity exists. Sophie answers no to the God question, saying, "I don't believe in some magic from the sky, just people."

By the end, when her skepticism has been challenged, Langdon tells her that it doesn't matter whether Jesus was mortal or divine. "The only thing that matters is what you believe," he says. That line, invented for the movie, sums up its attitude toward faith: a reassuring humanist shrug that says, "Whatever."

NOW HERE'S WHAT I CALL A REAL STAND OF PRINCIPLE


The Solomon Islands, which has no movie theaters, has announced plans to ban "The Da Vinci Code" from showing in movie theaters. Manasseh Sogavare, the island group's political leader, believes the content of the film could destroy the moral fabric of Christian society. Some 97.1 percent of the islands' 500,000 people are Christians.

None of the accounts of this story I read explained how you can ban the showing of a film when you have no theaters to begin with.

THE NUN WHO LED DA VINCI CODE PROTESTS MAY NOT BE A REAL NUN

In the ever-curiouser and curiouser story about what is fact and what is fiction in The Da Vinci Code, consider this news today from the BBC that Sister Mary Michael, the nun frequently seen in world TV reports leading protests against the Da Vinci Code (including recently at the Cannes Film Festival), may not be recoignized as a nun by her order. Here are excerpts from the BBC report:


Da Vinci code nun 'not genuine'
By Ben Davies
BBC News reporter

A woman who led protests against the Da Vinci Code dressed in a habit is not a real nun, says the Catholic Church. Sister Mary Michael appeared in the world's media denouncing the controversial book as "blasphemy".

The Catholic Church says Sister Mary is not "canonically recognised" even if she does do "good works".

She was connected to the Carmelites but left and is now a "maverick" and a "one-woman order", a spokesman told the BBC News website.

Sister Mary Michael hit the headlines in August 2005 after she mounted a prayer vigil outside Lincoln Cathedral while the Da Vinci Code was filmed there.

Asked about her status as a nun, Sister Mary Michael said: "I am attached to the Carmelites and that's it."

But the spokesman for the Nottingham diocese in which she lives, Rev Philip McBrien, said: "Her connection with the Carmelites ended a long time ago. She has never been professed by our bishops and she doesn't belong to any recognised order.

"She has no official connection with any order or any of the parishes. She's a one-off, a maverick.