March 29, 2006
The controversial film "The Da Vinci Code" will open this year's Cannes film festival May 17, two days before it is released worldwide.
Based on author Dan Brown's novel, "The Da Vinci Code" stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Sir Ian "Magneto" McKellen and Alfred "Doc Ock" Molina.
More than 30 million copies of "The Da Vinci Code" have been sold in about 40 languages.
Despite its reference to historical events and the Roman Catholic Church, the story has been denounced as pure fiction by the church.
Last week Catholic group 'Opus Dei', the clandestine villains of the film, called for the unrated movie to be given an adult rating, saying children should be protected from what it called "insidious" lies about Catholicism.
Budget for the film was reportedly $100 million, using the Louvre Museum in Paris as one of the main locations.
"Happy Together" director Won Kar Wai has been named president of the Cannes festival jury, the first Chinese president in the film event's history.
January 3, 2005
Premise of "The Da Vinci Code", beginning in Paris, France, focuses on Harvard symbologist 'Robert Langdon' (Tom Hanks) who receives a late-night call, telling him the elderly curator of the 'Louvre' museum has been murdered.
Near the body, police find a baffling 'cipher' that Langdon discovers leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of the great painter 'Da Vinci'.
Langdon joins forces with French cryptologist 'Sophie Neveu' (Audrey Tautou) and learns the late curator was involved in the 'Priory of Sion', an occultish secret society.
In a race through Paris and London, Langdon and Neveu match wits against the faceless enemy 'Silas' (Paul Bettany) who works for 'Opus Dei', a clandestine, religious organization, determined to keep the 'truth' of the Da Vinci Code from ever being revealed to the world.
