Secrets of the Code

2007-04-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

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-

2006-09-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-07-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-06-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

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."

2006-05-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DA VINCI CODE MOVIE--COMING VERY SOON

In this post are excerpts from an interview I did with journalist Erik Floren, who interviewed me last week for the Edmonton Sun, a newspaper in Canada. The article ran on Sunday. It has a pretty good set of quotes from me about my views on the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie and the phenomenon surrounding it. I hope you find it of interest. The weblink for the full text of the article is:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Spotlight/2006/05/14/1579185-sun.html

May 14, 2006

Da thriller in theatres
Author of unauthorized guide dispels myths as big screen version of book makes debut
By ERIK FLOREN, EDMONTON SUN

You read the book - now you eagerly await the movie.

You're certainly not alone.

With more than 46 million copies of The Da Vinci Code in print worldwide, Dan Brown's controversial thriller appears to have a built-in audience for the theatrical release on Friday.

The runaway literary blockbuster could easily translate into the runaway movie blockbuster of the summer.

Or even bigger.

"I'm expecting the film to be perhaps the biggest grossing film of all time," said The Da Vinci Code expert Dan Burstein, reached by telephone at his Connecticut office.

Burstein is the editor of Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code, the world's No. 1 bestselling guide to the book. As an authority with a non-religious perspective, Burstein has been interviewed extensively, including appearances on the History Channel, Inside Edition and in Forbes and The Washington Post.

"With 40 million buyers worldwide of the book, you can imagine the film is going to be seen by even more people," said Burstein, who predicts the motion picture could eventually surpass the box-office earnings of The Titanic.

"The fact is, the movie is going to be very controversial and get a huge amount of media - probably as much or more as Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ two years ago," said Burstein.

"It will be shown in almost every country in the world and it cuts across demographics and age and racial lines. I've rarely known of a movie that had so much potential to address so many different demographic niches simultaneously."

In the publishing world, The Da Vinci Code has become its own industry. At last count there were more than two dozen books featuring some form of the The Da Vinci Code in their title, cashing in on the enormous popularity of the novel.

Despite coming out in print four years ago, The Da Vinci Code continues to sell like no other novel, and still sits atop many international bestseller lists. Then again -in addition to being a rip-roaring read - the book has generated tonnes of publicity, no small part due to controversial allegations about the Bible, Jesus Christ and the early history of Christianity.

Especially controversial is the proposal that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and sired a dynastic bloodline - and that it was covered up by the Catholic Church.

Not surprising then, although the work is labelled as fiction, the Vatican has not been amused. In its latest broadside, Monsignor Angelo Amato blasted The Da Vinci Code as full of anti-Christian lies. Amato, the No. 2 man in the Vatican's powerful doctrine agency, urged Catholics to boycott the movie.

Other Vatican officials also called for boycotts of the book last year, suggesting The Da Vinci Code espouses heresy. But that's all just a tempest in a theological teapot, insists Burstein.

"The great quote from a bishop used by Dan Brown in his speeches, is if you look at everything the Catholic Church has withstood over the last 2,000 years - from Roman suppression to the Reformation to everything else - I think it can withstand the criticism of a novelist from New Hampshire," he laughed.

"And if The Da Vinci Code is shaking people's faith, the church has to engage in that issue, and ask, why? Because amid all the fiction and fantasy in The Da Vinci Code, there's some pretty provocative issues about the role of women in the church, about why Mary Magdalene was known as a prostitute for 1,500 years and about why these alternative gospels were suppressed (from the Bible) 1,800 years ago," said Burstein.

"These are very legitimate questions that should be discussed and debated." Those very questions are the reason Burstein - whose day job is managing a venture capital firm in New York - decided to publish Secrets of the Code.

"I was a fan of The Da Vinci Code and found it fascinating on many levels. I wanted to know more about the issues, and did my own independent research. There was so much debate about what's real and what's not in The Da Vinci Code - I wanted to go on the hunt," he said.

What Burstein found during his hunt was lots of errors big and small in The Da Vinci Code on matters of fact. What has everyone debating is actually very subjective matters of religion and theology - where there is no truth.

"If you're a highly religious person and you believe The Bible is the literal word of God, then obviously you're going to think that's a fact. But the fact that you believe that doesn't make it a fact," said Burstein.

While Burstein doesn't suspect any hidden agenda, he does think the writer was motivated by two strong beliefs.

"The first is Brown's belief that even though we live in the information age, there are powerful people in society that like to keep certain important truths from being widely known.

"What (Brown) also believes, I think very deeply, is that we are not aware of how much the original message of Jesus - the human being, the anti-Roman Jewish revolutionary who favoured the oppressed and the poor and the downtrodden and the women and the people of darker skin - got convoluted, changed and corrupted when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire of Constantine."

As with the book, Burstein feels his Secrets of the Code - a collection of original thought and writing from key authors and scholars active in their fields - will serve as an interesting companion to the movie, but recommends first seeing the film.

"If you come out of the theatre asking a lot of questions and wanting to know what you've just seen, you should definitely pick up a copy of our book. It will shed a lot of light.

"I also will not be surprised if a lot of the people who like the book are disappointed with the film, because I think it's very, very difficult in film to capture many of these bigger issues."

The special effects used in the Harry Potter movies made many parts of the book come alive on screen; but that won't be a luxury afforded with The Da Vinci Code movie, he speculated.

"A lot of the things that make the book most interesting is really mental and intellectual, and it's quite difficult to bring those things to life (with special effects)," said Burstein.

Still, those very issues and ideas are likely magical enough in themselves, having already helped launch The Da Vinci Code into a global phenomenon.

Indeed, a book selling 40 million copies is no ordinary novel. And the impact of The Da Vinci Code on our collective pop-cultural psyche is still growing. For this motion picture should reach even more people, further advancing the issues and ideas. So just how much is truth, and how much fiction?

"I think the truths are big and important - but metaphorical - they are not fact truths," said Burstein.

"We don't know that Jesus or Mary Magdalene were ever married. But the idea that they might have had a different kind of relationship than the one traditionally described is a very powerful one worth considering," he added.

"The stuff (in the novel) about the Priory of Sion is all made up, taken from a now very well-known documented 20th-century French hoax created by Pierre Plantard - and the stuff that's in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and was the basis for the London lawsuit."

That much-publicized court battle kept The Da Vinci Code in the news. London's High Court cleared Brown of copyright infringement last month, mere weeks before the movie was to open. British authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh had sued Brown, alleging his novel "appropriated the architecture" of their 1982 work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

Both books explore the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had children and his bloodline survives today.

"The irony about the Priory of Sion is that it's a hoax. Nobody should have a copyright to it because there's not even a shred of truth to it," laughed Burstein. "That there's a Priory of Sion going around today that has this long-term intellectual legacy that goes back to Leonardo Da Vinci is just a concoction.

"But it's interesting to consider because the people put into it - like Leonardo and Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo and Claude DeBussy and Mozart - were all one type of heretic or another. All of them believed in some kind of magical alchemical spiritual truths that were more important than, you know, common experience of science and nature and logic. And that's true. That's why they were included," said Burstein.

"So it's still an interesting idea to think about, but it's fundamentally false," said Burstein.

Isn't that the bottom line to The Da Vinci Code? That, whether book or movie, it is interesting to contemplate?

"Exactly. And that's what our book is all about, taking the people who want to think about those things and allowing them the materials and space to extend the conversation."

2006-05-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

I RATHER LIKE THIS LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF A JAMAICAN NEWSPAPER

I find it interesting for several reasons:

--One, it is a breath of fresh air for a person of obvious deep religious faith to be so relaxed about opening one's mind to interesting ideas that might be in the Da Vinci Code;

--Two, because it tells us something about the international scope of the debate over DVC;

--Three, because it showed up in my Google Alerts today and reminds us of how, in the age of instants search engines and blogs, a single writer with a thought to communicate can rise out of the billions of bits of data flowing through cyberspace and get our attention with a headline like: "Da Vinci Code Does Not Threatent the Bible; and

--Four, because the writer also seems to find our Secrets of the Code to be of interest.

Herewith, from the "Jamaican Gleaner," a letter to the editor from a writer named Pansy Gayle.

Letter of the day - Da Vinci Code does not threaten the Bible
published: Sunday | May 14, 2006

THE EDITOR, Sir:

RE THE Da Vinci Code(by Dan Brown) and the Unauthorised Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code by Dan Burstein, I read both books and found them to be mesmerising. Good writing, I say, coming from one who often loses interest if the author cannot keep my attention after a period of time.

Dan Brown's revived my interest to such an extent that I now do a lot more reading. Dan Burstein should be read after The Da Vinci Code. Both books should be read to get an empowered understanding of Christianity.

THOSE THREATENED

Those who feel threatened are not as grounded in their Christian faith as they ought to be.

Is there a fear that some people will become enlightened and brave enough to question issues they have read in the Bible, without feeling they are blaspheming? The Holy Bible is made up of different writings from different people at different times. Some are divinely inspired, I believe, by the spirit of the most high God; some are historical records of a 'nation'; some are letters written by followers of Jesus. The list goes on.

From the list, some writings were chosen to be part of another book called the Bible. Is it inconceivable that we do not know all the facts? Do we even care? Do most 'Christians' really read and understand Revelations. If they truly aspired to practice Jesus' teachings, acknowledge that they too are sinners, seek after righteousness continually, live a life based on faith in the spirit of the most high God, and learn to enjoy life whatever the condition, they would be amazed how rich their spiritual lives would become without craving after money.

Reading both books has not in any way diminished my faith in God nor stopped me from practising the teachings of Jesus and other prophets of old. I have been enlightened, nonetheless. Know for yourself the God you serve.

PANSY GAYLE

plgayle05@yahoo.com

2006-05-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

BLASPHEMY ON STEROIDS, OTHERCOTTS, SPY MOVIE DISCLAIMERS, THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES, AND A BIT OF SANITY FROM REV. JIM GARLOW WHO ADVOCATES "DA VINCI CODE PARTIES"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The New York Times's Laurie Goodstein did a good job the other day summarizing some of the many positions Christian religious leaders are taking in the run-up to the opening of the DVC movie. Excerpts follow:

Many Christian leaders across the country are girding themselves for battle with "The Da Vinci Code," the movie based on the blockbuster novel by Dan Brown that opens on May 19. Whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, Orthodox or evangelical, they agree that the book attacks the pillars of Christianity by raising doubts about the divinity of Jesus and the origins of the Bible.

But they are not at all in agreement on how to best respond to a movie that one leader called "blasphemy on steroids." Some will boycott it. Others will use it as a "teaching moment." Still others will lodge a protest by seeing another movie.

Until recently, the prevailing strategy was to hitch on to the Da Vinci steamroller and use it as an opportunity for evangelism. For months, clergy have been giving their flocks books and DVD's debunking the novel, and some have even encouraged their congregants to see the movie with a nonbeliever.

"I think we really have to see it, at least some of us," said Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent evangelical school. "It's very important for some Christians at least to be able to engage in an intelligent discussion."

But in recent weeks, calls for boycotts and protests have grown louder, from the Vatican to conservative Christian groups in the United States. They acknowledge that a boycott is not likely to make a dent at the box office, but say the co-optation strategy promoted by others will not adequately convey how offensive "The Da Vinci Code" is to their faith.

"Christians are under no obligation to pay for what Hollywood dishes out, especially a movie that slanders Jesus Christ and the church," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group based in Washington.

"I don't have to see 'The Devil in Miss Jones' to know it's pornography, and I don't have to see 'The Da Vinci Code' to know that it's blasphemous," said Mr. Knight, who plans to join religious leaders from groups like Human Life International and Movieguide in Washington on May 17 to announce boycott plans.

A third strategy now gaining currency is being called an "othercott" — urging people to see a different movie on the day "The Da Vinci Code" opens, like "Over the Hedge," an animated family feature. The idea was dreamed up by Barbara Nicolosi, a former nun who now directs Act One, a program in Los Angeles that coaches Christian screenwriters.

Talk of "the movie being an opportunity for evangelism is a line completely concocted by the Sony Pictures marketing machine," said Ms. Nicolosi. "All they care about is getting the box office, and if they don't get the red states to turn out, the movie tanks."

To be sure, there are many Christians who do not regard the book or the movie as a threat. But the outrage is widespread, and the divisions on strategy do not run along denominational lines. Some evangelicals are calling for a boycott, while others are telling their flocks to see the film. Roman Catholic officials are not on the same page either.

The debate has been colored by the Muslim riots over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Most American media outlets refrained from showing the cartoons, and now some Christian leaders are asking why Christians should be expected to sit by while the media promotes a movie that insults their savior.

In Rome recently, Archbishop Angelo Amato, the No. 2 official in the Vatican's doctrinal office, told Catholic communications officials: "If such slanders, offenses and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust, they would have justly provoked a world uprising. Instead, directed at the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished. I hope you will all boycott the movie."

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a prominent Vatican official from Nigeria, said in a recently released documentary made by a Catholic film agency that Christians should take "legal means" against "The Da Vinci Code," though he did not explain how.

But in the United States, Catholic bishops have opted to take an "educational" approach, said Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They have produced a Web site, pamphlets and a documentary, "Jesus Decoded," that will air on NBC affiliates.

"We believe we can fight the Da Vinci Code's position from the point of view of scholarship, and we don't have to shut them down," Monsignor Maniscalco said.

Opus Dei, a Catholic group with a starring role in "The Da Vinci Code" as the evil guardian of the conspiracy, has consistently asked Sony Pictures to add a disclaimer to the movie. But the film's director, Ron Howard, told The Los Angeles Times last week, "Spy thrillers don't start off with disclaimers."

The prevailing evangelism strategy will affect thousands of churches. Focus on the Family, the conservative media ministry founded by Dr. James Dobson, has enlisted 3,000 churches to show a simulcast on the issue the weekend the movie opens.

The Rev. Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, has trained more than 200 pastors in how to encourage their congregations to use the movie to share their faith by throwing "Da Vinci Code parties" in their homes.

"It's the task of the missionary to learn the language of the indigenous people," he said, "and Dan Brown's book has become a universal language. It simply opens doors."

2006-05-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

TROUBLING SIGN #2: MORE EXTREME NEGATIVE REACTIONS: THE PHILIPPINES

(Reuters) - The Philippine government should ban the controversial movie "The Da Vinci Code," a senior official in the mainly Catholic country said Wednesday, describing the religious thriller as blasphemous.
The film, based on the best-selling fiction novel of the same title, is due to open in Manila's cinemas next week.

"I think we should do everything not to allow it to be shown," said Eduardo Ermita, executive secretary to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, expressing his personal opinion as a "devout Catholic."

He told journalists the state's censors should take a closer look at its guidelines before giving the green light to the film whose central premise is that Jesus Christ sired a child by Mary Magdalene.

More than 80 percent of the Philippines' 85 million population are Roman Catholic. Along with Malta, the Philippines is one of only two countries in the world without a divorce law and frowns on the promotion of artificial contraception.

"In the name of many like you who love and revere the Son of God made Man, I strongly appeal to you that the showing of the film 'Da Vinci Code' be banned throughout our land," said a Roman Catholic archbishop in a letter to the chief censor this week.

Ramon Arguelles of the archdiocese of Lipa, south of Manila, said the movie was an affront to Christianity, reminding the censors that the government had imposed a ban on another movie, "The Last Temptation of Christ" in the 1980s.

Ermita said Arroyo, also a devout Roman Catholic, has not made any statement on the issue. She is due to return from a four-day state visit to Saudi Arabia Thursday.

"It's something that we should not be talking about," he said, referring to the movie's storyline. "We might get struck by lightning."

2006-05-10T04:10:00.000-07:00

A TROUBLING PORTENT OF THINGS TO COME: EXTREME REACTIONS IN INDIA TO THE UPCOMING OPENING OF THE DA VINCI CODE FILM:

A Roman Catholic organization in India has urged Christians to starve themselves to death to protest the release of "The Da Vinci Code" in movie theaters there, Agence France-Presse reported. Joseph Dias, the secretary general of the Catholic Secular Forum, who spoke of the "fast unto death" as a demonstration of "the extent that our feelings have been hurt," said that it is "a more Christian way of doing things rather than pulling down things and tearing them up."

The forum said that it hoped that thousands of people would turn out for a protest today in Mumbai to burn effigies of Dan Brown, the author of the best-selling novel that is the basis for the film, scheduled for international release on May 19. Yesterday about 100 people gathered in Mumbai to burn pages of the book, but the police stopped them from torching an effigy of Mr. Brown. About 2 percent of the 1.1 billion people in India are Christian.

2006-05-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

WITH ALL THE IMPORTANT ISSUES SURROUNDING THE DA VINCI CODE, AND THE VERY SERIOUS DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES, EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO REMEMBER THIS IS JUST A NOVEL, JUST A FILM, JUST A WORK OF POP CULTURE--I GOT A GOOD LAUGH OUT OF THIS REPORT FROM SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, AS REPORTED BY HOLLYWOOD.COM:

HOLLYWOOD - Tom Hanks poked fun at the religious controversy surrounding his new film The Da Vinci Code by facing criticism from mock priests, cardinals, nuns, Popes and even Jesus Christ as he guest-hosted Saturday Night Live.

The Oscar winner's new movie, which is adapted from Dan Brown's controversial novel of the same name, has upset Catholic Church officials because it questions longstanding beliefs about Christ and an alleged bloodline.

But Hanks, who insists the film and the debate it will spark will actually help to swell church numbers, is taking the criticism in his stride.

Hosting Saturday Night Live for the eighth time, Hanks opened the show by taking questions from regular cast members dressed as clergymen and clergywomen--and Jesus himself...The highlight of the skit came when show regular, Jason Sudeikis, dressed up as a comedic Jesus. He quipped, "Mr. Hanks, I saw your film and I just want you to know that I forgive you."

But when the actor asked if he'd actually seen all of The Da Vinci Code, Sudeikis' Jesus joked, "I haven't seen that. I was forgiving you for making The Terminal... I saw that on an airplane and people were still walking out."

2006-05-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

AN INTERESTING COMMENT FROM OPUS DEI

Opus Dei continues its media offensive. Of all the many critics of the Da Vinci Code novel and upcoming film, Opus Dei has positioned itself as the most visible and vocal critic. I have no problem with their reaction--they feel defamed by their portrayal in the Da Vinci Code and they are using their prodigious resources and media savvy to fight back. To me, however, it is unfortunate that Opus Dei is becoming so central to the controversy over the Da Vinci Code, because I happen to think there are dozens of more interesting questions to discuss than the portrayal of Opus Dei.

In all the media coverage of Opus Dei's position, I found this quote from an Opus Dei scholar of particular interest: “If you find what you see there (i.e., in the Da Vinci Code) attractive, you will probably enjoy a Catholic Mass....I’ve seen people who have come back to their faith after reading The Da Vinci Code.”

Here's a fuller version of the story with the quote in context:

Catholic scholars gathered in Rome today to explore whether the soon-to-be-released film version of The Da Vinci Code will help spread hostile sentiment against the church or provide an opportunity to draw people closer to religion.

Scholars including members of Opus Dei – the conservative religious order depicted as a murderous, power-hungry sect in the best-selling Dan Brown novel - were participating at the forum on the potential effects of the movie, set for release on May 17-19 around the world.

“The movie will reach more people, so in that sense it will be a bit of a step forward for the book’s ideas,” said the Rev. John Wauck, a professor at Opus Dei’s University of Santa Croce in Rome.

The book also targets Opus Dei for its purported political and economic power as well is its use of “corporal mortification,” the voluntary punishing of one’s body as spiritual discipline.

Several high-ranking prelates are members of Opus Dei, an order which was particularly favoured by the late Pope John Paul II.

“As a book, The Da Vinci Code doesn’t merit serious attention,” Wauck said before the conference.

“However, as a phenomenon it demands serious attention, because a book that sells 40 million copies is not just a book, it tells us something about our society and the world we live in,” Wauck said.

The novel’s success is a sign that there is “tremendous religious ignorance” but that readers also have a thirst for history, art, symbolism and a more spiritual life, Wauck said, indicating that the movie might draw some people closer to Catholicism.

“If you find what you see there attractive you will probably enjoy a Catholic Mass,” he said. “I’ve seen people who have come back to their faith after reading The Da Vinci Code.”

Opus Dei has refrained from calling for a boycott of the movie, but is among those asking Sony to issue a disclaimer with the film that would clarify that it is a work of fantasy.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has declined to reveal whether the film would bear a disclaimer but has said the work is not a religious one and is not meant to criticise any group.

2006-05-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

The CBS affiliate in Boston, Channel 4, carried an intriguing and original report today:

Despite the charges in some quarters that the Da Vinci Code is "anti-Catholic," the channel 4 report notedd, "In our exclusive Fast Track we asked Boston area Catholics who've read the book about the story's accuracy. Sixty-six percent say 'The Da Vinci Code' is 'very' or 'somewhat' accurate."

This is one of the first quantifications I have seen of an obvious trend: Many ordinary people who happen to be Catholics have found many interesting ideas and food for thought in the Da Vinci Code.

The Boston TV report went on, however, to quote C.J. Doyle, who heads the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, an anti-defamation organization with about 1700 members. He says people should stay away from the movie. "This is a blasphemous fable. And frankly, I'd urge every Catholic never to go to another movie involving Tom Hanks or purchase any product from the Sony Corporation," according to Doyle.

2006-04-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME ABOUT THE LONDON PLAGIARISM TRIAL IN WHICH TWO OF THE AUTHORS OF HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL (MICHAEL BAIGENT AND RICHARD LEIGH) SUED OVER ALLEGED PLAGIARISM OF THEIR WORK BY DAN BROWN IN THE DA VINCI CODE

Here are excerpts from a press release we issued three weeks before Judge Smith issued his ruling. Smith's ruling confirmed my analysis in the press release, although his ruling itself has now become more famous for its buried "Smithy Code" within its 71 pages than for its rejection of the plagiarism charge. (More on that soon).

Anyway, here are excerpts from our March 16, 2006 press release:

"IF DAN BROWN IS A PLAGIARIST, SO WAS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE"

SECRETS OF THE CODE editor Dan Burstein comments on the controversies surrounding novelist Dan Brown's London trial on charges of plagiarism

New York, March 16, 2006—“There’s no more plagiarism in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code than there is in Shakespeare’s King Lear,” said Dan Burstein, editor of the book, Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind the Da Vinci Code, in a statement released today. Burstein was reacting to the recent headline making news from a court case in London where Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, stands accused of plagiarism by two writers of the 1982 bestseller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (HBHG).

“In editing Secrets of the Code three years ago, long before the allegations of plagiarism surfaced, our editorial team searched out all the books Dan Brown might have used in his research, and licensed the right to present excerpts from many of them in our book,” Burstein observed. “We included an excerpt from Holy Blood, Holy Grail in Secrets of the Code because it was obviously one of the key books Brown relied on. He mentioned it specifically by name in The Da Vinci Code, he listed it on his website bibliography, and of course, the fictional character, Leigh Teabing, the “grail hunter” in The Da Vinci Code, is modeled on an amalgam of Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, the HBHG authors now suing in London. The first name Leigh is drawn from Richard Leigh and the surname Teabing is an anagram of Baigent.”

Burstein noted that in light of the current trial in London, it is interesting to look back at the introduction to the excerpt from Holy Blood, Holy Grail in Secrets of the Code. That introduction said in part:

“Holy Blood, Holy Grail is the book that ‘started it all,’ in terms of the late twentieth century’s interst in the intersecting secrets and conspiracies of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, their supposed bloodline, the lost Gospels, the Templars, the Priory of Sion, … Baigent, Lincoln, and Leigh spent over ten years in their own kind of quest for the Holy Grail, delving deeply into the secretive history of early France in order to write Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Reading the book, one can almost see the places where Dan Brown might have highlighted something or put a Post-It on it and said, ‘Aha! I’ve got to use that!’

[In a case of life imitating our Secrets of the Code, just such a marked-up, highlighted copy of HBHG showed up as evidence in the London court room!]

“However, as a number of articles (in Secrets of the Code point out), Holy Blood, Holy Grail has been seriously questioned in terms of its research, its methods, and its conclusions. Most academics with expertise in the fields the book touches upon find it either non-credible at best, or, at a minimum, mistakenly supportive of the hoax that many experts believe the whole Priory of Sion to be.

“Holy Blood, Holy Grail is definitely worth the reader’s attention. Whether it is true or not, or how much of it might be true, we will leave to each reader to judge. Let’s just say Dan Brown had a good idea in weaving this fascinating material into a work of fiction…Our aim here is to give readers a taste for this true Ur-text for The Da Vinci Code. If it interests you, get Holy Blood, Holy Grail and read the whole thing!”

Burstein points out today, “Perhaps no one in the world has studied the issue of the source materials for The Da Vinci Code as closely as our team of writers and editors in the ‘Secrets’ series. I can say with confidence that, while we found HBHG to be very important to The Da Vinci Code, we also found many other books, authors, and ideas to be of critical importance as well.

“Our whole concept in Secrets of the Code is to show readers interested in The Da Vinci Code the rich world of fascinating resources Dan Brown had drawn upon. It wasn’t just Holy Blood, Holy Grail—it was also the work of Lynn Picknett, who, in her book The Templar Revelation, first articulated the alleged hidden messages in The Last Supper that Dan Brown would later use; it was also Margaret Starbird, who wrote powerfully about new ways to look at Mary Magdalene in The Woman with the Alabaster Jar; it was also Elaine Pagels who forever changed the world of mainstream theology with her book, The Gnostic Gospels; and it was James Robinson and his team of scholars who translated and interpreted the great collection of alternative scriptures to be found in the book, The Nag Hammadi Library. …Dan Brown mentions all these books by name in The Da Vinci Code and listed them all in his bibliography. Excerpts from all of these books—and many, many more—are in Secrets of the Code because we knew that all of these ideas were important to Dan Brown in creating the narrative web of The Da Vinci Code and that they would be even more important to readers who wanted to learn and know more.

“Brown is not a plagiarist. He is, instead, a master at finding this largely out-of-the-way material, mining it, deconstructing it, reconstructing it, mixing and matching it, and weaving it all together against the backdrop of an action-adventure/murder mystery with characters and plots all his own.

“Shakespeare did the same thing—he borrowed the plot of King Lear and numerous other plays from prior plays. But then he added his proprietary Shakespearean touch, which made all the difference. Did Matthew, Luke, and John “plagiarize” Mark? Did the New Testament “plagiarize” the Old Testament? Did the Gnostic Gospels “plagiarize” the accepted Gospels? Obviously not. The courtroom drama over the intellectual property at the heart of The Da Vinci Code is not really a battle over plagiarism. Instead, it is a battle over the collective heritage of western civilization. These myths, legends, Jungian archetypes, alternative histories, cosmological theories belong to all people, to all writers, to do what they will with them in fiction or nonfiction.”

2006-04-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

I saw the latest Da Vinci Code film clip recently--Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou as Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu in the Louvre. Unfortunately, it made me cringe with its stilted dialogue and flat acting. I have been saying for some time that I think The Da Vinci Code will be the biggest grossing movie of all time. I still think that will turn out to be true. But it isn't going to win huge critical acclaim. It looks like the screenplay has not really nailed the right voice to tell the story in and Tom Hanks remains a poor casting choice in my opinion. In my straw polls taken in groups of Da Vinci Code enthusiasts around the country before the cast for the film was officially announced, a noticeable majority favored Harrison Ford (for whom the Robert Langdon part was written by Dan Brown, if you read his descriptions of Langdon in the novels) and Juliette Binoche.

2006-04-17T14:35:00.001-07:00

Sony Pictures' decision, announced today, to sponsor a web site devoted to various varieties of Christian theological and intellectual critique of its soon-to-be-released film version of The Da Vinci Code is remarkably clever. Although somewhat akin to tobacco companies sponsoring ads warning of the dangers of cigarettes, this is a far smarter move politically, artistically, and from a marketing point of view. In one sweep, Sony diffuses much of the type of theological critique that has hounded The Da Vinci Code as a novel. Sony is able to keep the "artistic integrity" of their film, without bowing to every pressure group and religious lobbying interest. But at the same time, Sony can say, hey, we're not anti-Christian--look, we're giving the critics a huge forum to tell their side of the story. And of course it should all work to turn potential boycotters of the movie into filmgoers who then join the discussion on the www.thedavincichallenge.com web site. I have one piece of advice for Sony: there are groups other than Christian critics who have a lot to say critically--as well as to add to the conversation--about The Da Vinci Code. So open up the critical commentaries to everyone else who has something important to say! You don't have to believe The Da Vinci Code is blasphemous in order to have an interesting critique of it.

2006-04-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Opus Dei is pulling out all the stops to present itself as a warm and fuzzy group with a human face prior to the attack on their group they fear is coming in The Da Vinci Code movie. Early word was that the generally secretive and inward-looking and extremely devout Catholic group, having felt its reputation unfairly tarnished by the Dan Brown novel, appealed to the filmmakers to make the film without specifically referencing Opus Dei....And the early word was also that the filmmakers had acceded to this demand and turned Silas's group from Opus Dei into simply a shadowy fringe group within the Church. Now, it isn't so clear that the film has written Opus Dei out of the script, so my friends over on Lexington Avenue are mounting their own pre-film media campaign. They've brought forward all sorts of against-type members of Opus Dei. They have recently introduced me and my research team to several perky middle-aged career women who are wonderful mothers and wives. Most recently, we even met "the real Silas," a member of Opus Dei in the New York area who happens to be named Silas--Silas Agbim, a Nigerian-born stockbroker. This "real Silas" is not only not an Albino and not a monk (Dan Brown, take note: there are no monks in Opus Dei, which is a lay organization), he jokingly points out he has never murdered anyone. Opus Dei also directs anyone who is interested toward John Allen, a CNN advisor in covering the Vatican and a respected Catholic journalist. Allen has recently written the book, Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Allen's book is reasonably fair and balanced. However, don't think for a minute that Dan Brown simply made up a sinister role for Opus Dei out of whole cloth. He based it on something. I am guessing he had read the same persistent rumors I have read that Opus Dei was involved in some of the Latin American death squads on the 1980s, the Vatican Bank scandal of the 1970s and the possible murder of Pope John Paul I (a very similar Pope is poisoned in Dan Brown's prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons). There's a lot we simply don't know about Opus Dei...but my guess is that we will learn more in the coming weeks as the debate over The Da Vinci Code reaches a new crescendo.