Italian promocard by The Cult Advertising, no. PC 6391. Image: Imagine / Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006). Caption: Tom Hanks is Langdon. 19 May 2006, the secret will be revealed.
Italian promocard by The Cult Advertising, no. PC 6390. Image: Imagine / Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006). Caption: Audrey Tautou is Sophie. 19 May 2006, the secret will be revealed.
An image using his body and blood
The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006) begins in the Louvre at night. A man is pursued by an unknown man, threatened and finally murdered.
Later we learn that the man killed is Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre. In his last minutes, Saunière creates an image using his body and blood that forms a sketch of Leonardo da Vinci.
At the time, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a Harvard University symbologist, was in Paris to give a lecture and present his new book. Police officers appear at the book signing afterwards. They show him the photo of Saunière's body and ask him for his opinion.
At the Louvre, he meets Sophie (Audrey Tautou), Saunière's granddaughter who works as a cryptologist for the Paris police. Together they try to figure out the mysterious murder and the clue Saunière was trying to give. It turns out that the curator belonged to the Priory of Sion. Leonardo da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Claude Debussy and Sir Isaac Newton are also said to have belonged to it.
After following clues in Da Vinci's paintings, they find a fleur de lis with a street name on it. When they get to the right address, it turns out to be a bank. It led to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years, which could shake the foundations of Christianity.
Italian promocard by The Cult Advertising, no. PC 6387. Image: Imagine / Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Ian McKellen in The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006). Caption: Ian McKellen is Teabing. 19 May 2006, the secret will be revealed.
British postcard by Pacificmeg.com. Photo: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006). This postcard was published for the VCD & DVD release in 2006.
Nominated for the Golden Raspberry
The Da Vinci Code (2002) was shot in Britain, France and Germany. The Louvre in Paris gave the film crew permission to film in the museum; however, Westminster Abbey did not, so the scenes set there in the book were shot in other churches, namely Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln and Winchester Cathedral in Winchester.
The chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, Mike West, called the book heretical and "historical nonsense" in a public address. Alec Knight, the dean of the Anglican cathedral, called the bestseller a "load of rubbish". Nevertheless, he reached an agreement with the US film studio Sony to film the film after a donation of the equivalent of around 146,000 euros was promised. Many of the scenes in buildings were shot at Pinewood Studios.
The film's premiere took place at the Cannes Film Festival. There, the film was lukewarmly received by the film critics in attendance. The film was said to be too complicated, too rushed and difficult to understand for people who had not read the book. During a crucial moment at the end of the film, the audience erupted in laughter the moment Professor Langdon told cryptologist Neveu that she was the last living descendant of Jesus Christ. In 2007, the film was nominated for the Golden Raspberry in the category of Worst Director.
The Encyclopaedia of International Film called The Da Vinci Code a "film absurd in its theses, yet thoroughly entertaining, which feeds its story from the fund of questionable conspiracy theories and, despite its closeness to mainstream cinema, is given a character all of its own by the performance of its leading actor." The film, with an estimated budget of $125 million, grossed around $758.2 million worldwide.
Dan Brown and his wife made a cameo in the film together at the beginning of the film, in the background of Robert Langdon's autograph session. In 2008, another of Brown's novels, 'Angels and Demons', was made into a film. Tom Hanks was again cast in the role of Langdon, and the Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer took on the role of a nuclear physicist. The film, Angels and Demons, was released in 2009. Inferno, the film of the fourth book in the Robert Langdon series was released in 2016. Hanks played Professor Langdon once again, directed by Ron Howard.
Italian promocard by The Cult Advertising, no. PC 6388. Image: Imagine / Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Jean Reno in The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006). Caption: Jean Reno is Fache. 19 May 2006, the secret will be revealed.
Italian promocard by The Cult Advertising, no. PC 6389. Image: Imagine / Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures. Paul Bettany in The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006). Caption: Paul Bettany is Silas. 19 May 2006, the secret will be revealed.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, French and German) and IMDb.
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