Dear
Ron, Howard,
 It
has come to my attention that you will be directing the
big screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel The Da
Vinci Code. Kudos to having the stones to put this controversial
book on film. But there are many things to consider.
The
Da Vinci Code taps into the "true legend" of Jesus,
The Holy Grail & the rise of the Catholic church. While
it’s true that the legend does exist & the descriptions
in Da Vinci’s artwork that allude to said legend are
true, you, Mr. Howard, are bound to get a bunch of shit
from God fearing Christians as the information puts many
cracks in the church’s big lie. These are people who
will not realize that your film will be based on a novel.
A novel is a work of fiction, even when real things inspire
it. But the anger will come from folks who will interpret
the movie literally. These are the same people who interpret
the Bible literally; therefore they entirely miss the point
of both the "good" book & Dan Brown’s
novel.
Secondly,
developing a novel into a film is difficult. The age-old
argument always gets mentioned that the book was better.
There have been cases where the movie is indeed better than
the book, like Jaws or Hannibal. There are movies that are
just as good as the books they’ve been adapted from,
such as The Shawshank Redemption & Mystic River. Then
there are movies based on books that have been shat upon
celluloid with Hollywood’s poor interpretation of
them.
Apt
Pupil was a novella by Stephen King, which was made into
a film by Bryan Singer & starring Ian McKellen &
Brad Renfro. I loved the story ahead of time, so when the
film was released, I rushed to the theater to see it ..
& had to hold my vomit. Gone were the darker aspects
of humanity that King explored. They had been replaced by
cheap Hollywood copper plating & David Schwimmer. For
many years afterward, I would watch a movie first &
then read the book so as not to be that disappoints (read
that as pissed off) again.
In
closing, Mr. Howard, I’d like to say that since finishing
The Da Vinci Code last week, it has become my favorite novel.
It’s not just because I love the story & the mysterious
clues & twists are terribly addicting, but because it
pissed off the church. I went to a bookstore recently to
find another Dan Brown novel when I saw no less than 10
books about The Da Vinci Code, some supporting the myths
within it others seeking to disprove them. It’s nice
to know that the written word can still get under the skins
of so many.
Please,
Opie, don’t water down a fine tome to appease everyone
& don’t cast Russell Crowe, Because he sucks.
If you do, I’ll have to bust your head until the white
meat shows, you Howdy Doody looking fool.
Arigato,
R
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