The 'Code' Breakers -- din Newsweek
Codul lui Da Vinci (filmul) va face multe valuri anul viitor. Newsweek ne ofera acest preview al masinatiunilor din spatele filmarilor. Absolut mortale.... (Chirac incerca sa puna o pila pe linga regizori)...
Dec. 26, 2005 - Jan 2, 2006 issue - Like so many luxuries in this life, getting permission to shoot a movie inside the Louvre is easier if you know the right people. For three months in late 2004, the Oscar-winning filmmakers behind "The Da Vinci Code," director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, had pursued a permit through official channels, filling out forms, pressing the relevant flesh and reassuring anyone who needed to hear it that they would leave France's national treasure exactly as they found it. Things were going smoothly. But Howard and Grazer were still anxious. Things had also been going well with London's Westminster Abbey, another key location in their screen adaptation of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel?but in the end, they were turned away. Losing Westminster Abbey hurt. Losing the Louvre would be devastating. There are many plum locations in "The Da Vinci Code," but none more famous or romantically charged. And be honest: wouldn't you be disappointed if you heard that "The Da Vinci Code" movie had to fake the Louvre? Story continues below ? advertisement Then, in early December, while Howard and Grazer were in Paris auditioning actresses for the film's female lead, they got a call from the office of French President Jacques Chirac inviting them to swing by and say bonjour. "We thought it was going to be a five-minute thing, like a trip to the Oval Office?a photo and a handshake," says Grazer. But Chirac asked them to sit down and get comfortable. Coffee was poured. They ended up staying close to an hour. Chirac insisted that his guests alert him if their request to film at the Louvre hit any snags. Not only that, he offered them some ... pointers. He suggested they cast his daughter's best friend?an actress of some acclaim in France?in the role of Sophie Neveu, the elegant young cryptographer at the heart of the book's mystery. And he wondered aloud, half seriously, if they could sweeten the paycheck for actor Jean Reno, who'd already been cast as the relentless French detective Bezu Fache. "That was hilarious," says Howard. "Fortunately the deal was already closed." If you're not one of the 25 million people worldwide who have read "The Da Vinci Code," you have six months to get caught up before the movie opens on May 19, 2006. You'll need a day or two, tops. Brown's frantic, addictive novel, about a Harvard symbology professor named Robert Langdon who gets embroiled in a murder mystery of Biblical proportions, is a combination thriller, religious manifesto and art-history lecture, with chapters about as long as a takeout menu. Since it was published in 2003, the book has become a global industry, spawning everything from critical documentaries to reverential bus tours. It has been condemned by the Vatican for disseminating falsehoods about the Roman Catholic Church and by literary critics for disseminating lame prose. The cult of "The Da Vinci Code" will reach new heights with the release of Columbia Pictures' $125 million film version, starring Tom Hanks as Langdon and an international cast led by Reno, Ian McKellen ("The Lord of the Rings"), Paul Bettany ("A Beautiful Mind") and Alfred Molina ("Spider-Man 2"). The role of Sophie ended up going to Audrey Tautou ("Amelie"), who beat out 30 other French actresses. Including Chirac's daughter's best friend.
posted by SAM @ 12/28/2005 11:04:00 PM
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