While The Da Vinci Code book is a nationwide bestseller with plenty of publicity, not much is known about the film version of the novel. In a measure that appears to avoid controversy, the movie company is keeping the movie script under wraps. The last news update on the film’s web site was in April.
According to The New York Times, Sony Pictures, parent of Columbia Pictures has “dropped a scrim of secrecy over the affair, refusing to discuss anything but the barest details. The script has been closely controlled. Outsiders have been banned from the set. And those associated with the film have had to sign confidentiality agreements.”
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) and its America Needs Fatima campaign is launching a nationwide e-protest asking Columbia Pictures to lift the silence surrounding the filming. The campaign is asking that Columbia release details of the script and the film’s contents.
“By hiding the script and its contents, it seems Columbia hopes to silence opposition,” Mr. Horvat continued. “The logic is that if we can’t read the script, we can’t discuss the film.”
Under the guise of fiction, The Da Vinci Code attacks everything Catholics hold sacred – the Divinity of Christ, the truth of the Gospel, the Papacy and the holy mysteries of the Faith.
The book’s author claims that Saint Mary Magdalene was really Jesus’ wife who gave birth to his child and that Christ wanted her, not Saint Peter to lead the Church. He further portrays the Catholic Church as a cruel power that betrayed Christ and hid His real teachings from the faithful.
The question most people are asking is how much of the material in the book is going to be contained in the movie.
“It is ironic that the very people who say the Catholic Church has hidden the truth from the faithful now hide the truth from the public,” commented Mr. Horvat.
The American TFP’s “Release the Script” campaign is part of an ongoing protest by several groups which is already having results. The New York Times reports that executives connected with the project “acknowledge that their silence is also a measure of concern about the potentially incendiary nature of the subject matter.”
The American TFP and its America Needs Fatima campaign have mobilized hundreds of volunteers who distributed 225,000 protest cards across the country. Over 34,000 people have already signed on to the protest in its beginning phase.
The American TFP will also soon be publishing a book Rejecting The Da Vinci Code against the film and organizing protests in front of theaters.
“All we’re asking at this point is that the ‘code of silence’ be lifted from ‘The Da Vinci Code’ movie,” says Mr. Horvat. “Why all the secrecy?”