"Code" Cracks Cannes
This Cannes opener doubles as a code breaker.
Ron Howard's celluloid adaptation of Dan Brown's publishing phenomenon, The Da Vinci Code, will kick off the 59th Cannes Film Festival, organizers have announced.
The heavily hyped, big-budget whodunit, starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno , Ian McKellen and Alfred Molina, will screen out of competition. It will screen out of competition on May 17 and be simultaneously be released throughout France--two days before hitting theaters around the globe.
While The Da Vinci Code will lend some Hollywood glamour to the usual slate of deep-thinking foreign films often dominating the Cannes lineup, it does have something that separates it from other American blockbusters that have premiered on the Croisette (see last year's Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith): The Da Vinci Code is largely set in France and features two major French stars in Tautou and Reno.
Hewing closely to Brown's mega-selling novel, which has moved more than 30 million copies worldwide, The Da Vinci Code kicks off with the murder of the curator of the Louvre and centers around the museum's most famous work, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Other local landmarks that will be highlighted include Paris' Saint-Sulpice Church.
The thriller follows globetrotting Harvard art historian Robert Langdon (Hanks) who sets out to solve the murder by deciphering clues found in Da Vinci's works, ultimately unraveling a conspiracy that threatens the foundations of Christianity.
Howard, who directed Hanks in Splash (1984) and Apollo 13 (1995), has been keeping a tight lid on the production, which figures to be one of the biggest films of the year. He is no stranger to Cannes, having screened several of his films there, including 1988's Willow, 1992's Far and Away and 1999's EDTV.
This year's Cannes Film Festival runs May 17-28.
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