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Da Vinci Code
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 Da Vinci Code Production NotesFrom director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar-winning team of A Beautiful Mind, and producer John Calley (the Oscar-nominated The Remains of the Day), comes the film version of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, one of the most popular and talked about novels of our time, with a cast headed by two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Paul Bettany and Jean Reno.
Produced by Grazer and Calley, The Da Vinci Code involves a thrilling murder investigation that unearths the biggest cover-up in human history.
Famed symbologist Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is called to the Louvre museum one night where a curator has been murdered, leaving behind a mysterious trail of symbols and clues. With his own survival at stake, Langdon, aided by the police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), unveils a series of stunning secrets hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, all leading to a covert society dedicated to guarding an ancient secret that has remained hidden for 2000 years.
The pair set off on a thrilling quest through Paris, London and Scotland, collecting clues as they desperately attempt to crack the code and reveal secrets that will shake the very foundations of mankind.
The Genesis of The Da Vinci Code
The phenomenal success of Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, was just beginning to invade the public consciousness when producer John Calley was encouraged to read the book by Sony Chairman Howard Stringer. “I was crazed by it, fascinated. It was a first-rate thriller,” Calley recalls. He immediately optioned the film rights.
At the same time, Imagine Entertainment co-chairman Brian Grazer and his partner, director and producer Ron Howard, were also keen on adapting the book for the screen. Grazer was especially intrigued by some of its underlying issues:
“Not only did I like The Da Vinci Code as an entertaining and exciting read, but there were certain profound things about the story that caught my attention. There were questions of history versus the creation of history - questions I found exciting and compelling.”
When Grazer and Howard learned that Calley had already optioned the rights, they approached him with their ideas about a movie version of The Da Vinci Code, and a partnership was formed. Howard's wife was reading the book with her book group when he mentioned that he might direct a film version, and was delighted that their reactions were all glowing. He says: “I discovered the book more or less the way the whole world did - through amazing word-of-mouth. People are interested in it for different reasons and are personally impacted by it in a variety of ways.”
But the main reason he was eager to direct The Da Vinci Code has to do with his love of the adventure thriller genre. “This story has all the style and traditional suspense elements that make a movie work as an entertaining narrative,” says Howard. “It takes the viewer along with the confidence that it's headed in a particular direction but then surprises you in so many ways. That's why the story Dan Brown created so captivated his readers. It feels familiar as a mystery and as a thriller but then, wow, there's this fascinating turn of events.”
Calley was glad to hear of Howard's interest in The Da Vinci Code, having long searched for the right opportunity to work with the Oscar®-winning director. “I've always admired Ron,” says Calley. “He's skillful and moderate in the best sense, in that he never has an agenda. He was a great choice for this project, since he brings a kind of fundamental intelligence that is totally appropriate to the material.
Having previously collaborated with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman on A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, Howard felt he was the natural choice to adapt Dan Brown's book. “It was a pretty daunting task,” says Howard. “By the time we'd all decided to make it into a movie, the book had gone from being a big hit to being this historic success story. I'd already been working very closely with Akiva and he and I had some fairly deep conversations about the novel, because it's more than just believing it would make a good movie story. In choosing to take it to the screen you also have to ask yourself a lot of the questions that the book poses to the reader. I've never really been involved in a film project like this, one that not only generates feeling and emotion and is entertaining, but also really stimulates great conversation.”
Goldsman himself says he was a bit daunted by the task of adapting Brown's best-selling literary phenomenon to the screen, since so many people had read it and had visualized it in their own minds. “I was tremendously impressed by the book and had absolutely no idea how to adapt it, since it's such a complex, labyrinthine and intricate piece of fiction,” Goldsman confesses. “My inclination was to shy away from it. But then I sat down with Ron, and he had such a clear idea of what he wanted to do with it that he turned me around and gave me the confidence to try.”
Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, who embodies Dan Brown's protagonist Robert Langdon in the film, also acknowledges the challenges in trying to adapt such a successful book for the big screen: “You have to give every reader what they're expecting, because, quite frankly, the book is really good,” says Hanks. “You could change it, make it different, but you'd better be sure you're also making it better. Akiva's job in adapting something that is as specific as The Da Vinci Code is a monumental task, because of all of his great instincts as a screenwriter as to what makes for a good cinematic narrative.”
The filmmakers frequently conferred with Brown during the writing of the adaptation. “Dan made himself accessible in the most understanding, collaborative kind of way, in terms of his acceptance of the fact that, of course, the screenplay was not going to be a verbatim version of the novel,” remembers Howard. “He knew we were going to have to streamline it somewhat. But he was a really important resource in helping us interpret things he had learned or read including several things he discovered after he wrote the book, which have found their way into the script. So, our movie is in some ways a kind of an updated, annotated version of The Da Vinci Code.”
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Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in The Da Vinci Code.
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