Anyone Remember Bonfire of the Vanities?
Movie studios have never exactly been a font of principle and courage, but even by their standards, it'd be pathetic if they buckled to Catholic pressure to water down
The Da Vinci Code.
The thesis of the book is that the Catholic Church suppressed the revelation of a marriage between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, and imposed a male hierarchy upon what had been a religion with a strong female presence.
Imagine...someone saying that the Catholic Church is dominated by men. The outrage!
So naturally, Catholic groups such as Opus Dei and the Catholic League are pushing Sony and director Ron Howard to water down or change the book's central tenet. (Does the Catholic League do anything
except protest?) And Sony is hinting that it doesn't want to do anything to offend Catholics.... Problem is, if you change the conspiracy theory, the book pretty much won't make any sense whatsoever.
The Da Vinci Code is barely a book in some traditional measures, such as characterization; it's really a dressed-up screenplay. At least from that perspective, it's pretty darn good. It may be all a crock, but it's a fun read, and it'd make a great movie pretty much as written.
So let The Da Vinci Code be. Remember: It's a novel. Fiction. Why would the Catholic Church be so afraid that people will believe a fiction? Or is it just this particular fiction that the church doesn't want people to believe>
