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Sunday, April 16, 2006

Join Da Vinci Code Quest (and win stuff)

http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicodequest/us/index.html



Posted by Admin on 04/16 at 07:00 AM
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Da Vinci Scissored Where It Hurts

Da Vinci scissored where it hurts

Da Vinci Code merch reduces the Vitruvian Man to a Ken doll
Apr. 16, 2006. 08:09 AM
RAJU MUDHAR
STAFF REPORTER

It is one of the best-known pieces of art, but in the world of film merchandising, it’s considered too X-rated to appear intact on a T-shirt.

The Da Vinci Code movie is set to hit theatres on May 19 and like any blockbuster, there will be marketing tie-ins galore. Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sketch Vitruvian Man — which features a naked man superimposed with an extra set of arms and legs in a square and circle to illustrate proportion — is one of the central images being used on shirts, hats and other merchandise.

However, in the licensed version, he seems to be missing something, his — ahem — manhood.

In Canada, Gem-sen has exclusive rights to market Da Vinci Code apparel and accessories. The Concord, Ont.-based company handles licensed products for the likes of The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Playboy and many other entities. For The Da Vinci Code, the company is making hats, T-shirts, keychains and other items, many of which are decorated with a stylized “DV” logo and the neutered Vitruvian Man.

When asked about the tampering with a master’s sketch, Gem-sen president Sal Riina was surprised.

“The truth is, you’re the first person who even noticed that,” he said. “We didn’t realize it here until (an employee) came in my office saying, `Sal, did you realize that we altered the logo?’ It was all news to me ...

“All of the artwork and style guides came directly from Sony Pictures. We decided to use what was best for our customer base. From our perspective, it’s one thing to appreciate a piece of art in a gallery, but it’s something else to have it on a piece of clothing.”

According to an email from Jim Kennedy in corporate communications at Sony Pictures, scissoring da Vinci was a business decision.

“The art was G-rated for products so they’d be accessible worldwide. Those interested in the unrated version can find it in the Da Vinci gallery of our movie website.”

It’s certainly not the first time that people have been testy about testicles in art. Michelangelo’s David has been the centre of many controversies; a bronze replica of the sculpture at Forest Lawn Memorial Park near Long Beach, Calif., was adorned with a strategically placed fig leaf for 30 years until 1969.

What is interesting about Vitruvian Man is that the sketch is so ubiquitous; it’s among the art world’s most reproduced works. The drawing is often used in both science and art textbooks and even appears on the Italian version of the one-euro coin.

Changing such a hallowed sketch — even for a T-shirt — doesn’t sit well with one curator.

“If Vitruvian Man is perfect and harmonious because of the relationship between all of his parts, he’s no longer perfect without his genitalia. He’ll just look weird, like a Ken doll,” says Pamela Meredith, interim curator at The Power Plant gallery.

“They should have left it alone ... I highly doubt it would have offended anyone. It’s da Vinci, for goodness sake!”

Such criticism aside, Riina has high hopes for a long sales run for the Da Vinci Code merchandise.

“It’s a tough call. From our perspective, we hope it’s a wonderful property, but the problem with this kind of property is that it tends to be a very short-lived affair.

“We’re introducing product just before the film hits the streets, then we’ll have a second launch of products around the holidays, in time for the DVD release. Then (movie merchandise sales) tend to dip off. From a licensing perspective, at a retail level, we would love to see numbers of $1 million plus.”

However, considering Leonardo da Vinci’s popularity and how many copies the Dan Brown book sold, there’s always a chance the sales chart has a longer life.

“If the da Vinci artwork catches on, it could have some legs,” says Riina.

Legs, perhaps, but not what lies in between.



Posted by Admin on 04/16 at 06:52 AM
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

DA VINCI CODE PRICE-TAG REACHES $4,000 FOR SIGNED COPY

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release

DA VINCI CODE PRICE-TAG REACHES $4,000 FOR SIGNED COPY

(Victoria, BC – 12 April 2006) Check out that copy of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code on your bookshelf. First edition first printings are being offered for up to (US) $600 at Abebooks.com along with a handful of signed versions priced from $1,000 to $4,000.

With the movie adaptation - starring Tom Hanks - to be premiered next month, original printings of the bestseller, recently released in paperback, are in demand. Originally sold for $24.95, a $600 copy of The Da Vinci Code represents a massive increase in value of 2300 per cent in just three years.

More than 13,500 professional independent booksellers list their inventories on Abebooks.com - the world’s largest online marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books – and many first printings of The Da Vinci Code are priced between $200 and $600 depending on condition. The book is now in its 104th printing.

The most expensive Da Vinci Code listing is a pristine unread first printing signed and dated by Brown. It is being offered by Pages of Boston for $4,000 and includes a promotional postcard depicting the book cover. The second most expensive copy is being offered by Books Tell You Why in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina, for $3,900.

One factor in defining collectible status is scarcity but, according to the publisher Random House, the book’s original print run for the 18 March 2003 first printing was 260,000. These first printings are the primary targets for collectors, but even later printings can command prices around $200 if they are signed or in exceptional condition.

Da Vinci Code fans can expect to pay more for signed editions - Abebooks.com offers 9 signed copies priced at over $1000. Brown is not expected to conduct further book signing tours because the public demand would be overwhelming and this will maintain high prices for autographed versions.

“Anyone who bought a first printing for just $24.95 made a very sound investment,” said Lisa Stevens, VP of marketing at Abebooks.com. “We suspect the forthcoming movie will create another wave of buyers looking for collectible copies so the demand could push prices higher.”

First editions of Brown’s earlier pre-Da Vinci Code books, Digital Fortress and Angels and Demons, are also being offered for four-figure prices at Abebooks.com. Published before Brown found worldwide fame, their small print runs greatly enhance their collectible status.

Abebooks.com has sold more copies of The Da Vinci Code than any other title since March 2003. Aside from collectible versions, there has been strong demand for cheaper used ‘reading’ copies because the soft-cover version was delayed for three years and only issued last month.

Abebooks.com is the world’s largest online marketplace for books, with over 80 million new, used, rare, and out-of-print titles listed for sale by more than 13,500 independent booksellers from around the world. Abebooks has millions of customers who purchase up to 25,000 books a day from its 5 global websites. A true internet success story, Abebooks has been selling books online since 1996, and is a private company based in Victoria, BC Canada, with offices in Germany and Spain. Internet Retailer magazine ranked Abebooks at No. 58 among North American online retailers in June 2005.



Posted by Admin on 04/12 at 01:55 PM
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Russian art historian accuses Dan Brown of plagiarism

Now Russian sues Brown over his Da Vinski Code
From Jeremy Page in Moscow


A RUSSIAN art historian has accused Dan Brown of plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code, just four days after a British Court rejected a similar claim.
Mikhail Anikin, a Leonardo da Vinci expert in the Hermitage museum’s Western European art department, said he would give Mr Brown one month to apologise and give up half his revenues from the book or he would take him to court in Russia and the US to seek all his earnings from the novel.


“When I read the book, I was shocked at its poor quality and because it used my ideas,” Dr Anikin said. “This book tells lies about the Church which upset me morally.”

Dr Anikin said he had written a book called Leonardo da Vinci: Theology In Paint in 2000, in which he argued that the Mona Lisa was an allegory for the Christian Church.

Two years ealier, he said, he had shared his views on the painting with some visiting specialists from the Menil Collection of Houston, Texas, who helped to organise an exhibition at the Hermitage. One, he said, had asked if could pass on the ideas to Brown, describing him as “a friend who wrote detective novels”.

Dr Anikin said that he agreed and even gave his theory the name, The Da Vinci Code, but insisted that he should be credited in any book.He never heard back, he said.

The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003 and soon became a global blockbuster.

On Friday, the High Court in London rejected a claim that Brown had plagiarised the 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh. Dr Anikin said he had heard about that result, but was nonetheless confident of his case. He said he had not spoken out earlier because he had an agreement with a Russian magazine giving it exclusive rights to his story.

Clare Harrington, a spokeswoman for Random House, which published The Da Vinci Code, said the company did not want to comment on “unsubstantiated threats”.

“We would suggest that anyone making claims with regard to The Da Vinci Code reads the judgement following the trial at the High Court,” she added.

There was no response from Brown.

The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies and been translated into 44 languages

Another 5 million copies have been printed in the US in preparation for the film version, which will premiere at Cannes next month

Forbes magazine ranked Brown as the world’s sixth best-paid celebrity, earning $76.5 million (£43.8 m) between June 2004 and June 2005

When the book was first published The Times described it as “littered with misconceptions, howlers and location descriptions straight out of tourist guide books”.



Posted by Admin on 04/11 at 10:15 PM
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Sunday, April 09, 2006

Opus Dei is Unhappy w/ DVC Portrayal

April 10, 2006, 12:50AM

Opus Dei tries to break Code’s spell on American public’s imagination

Catholic group fights image given by book and movie

By TARA DOOLEY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Many readers of Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code first learned about the Catholic organization Opus Dei by way of a murderous albino monk with a bloody dedication to self-mutilation.

With Ron Howard’s movie version set to hit American multiplexes May 19, the tiny international organization of devout Catholics has gone into public-relations high gear with what has become its mantra of the moment: There are no monks in Opus Dei, not even albino monks.

“In the past, for all the talking we did, nobody listened,” said the Rev. Michael Barrett, a priest of Opus Dei and director of Holy Cross Chapel in downtown Houston “ ... The Da Vinci Code all of a sudden made us famous, not in a great way. But it meant that we had to start talking and now people listened.”

Barrett is one of a corps dispatched onto television and radio airwaves as Opus Dei tests the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

After failing to persuade Sony Pictures to remove Opus Dei from the movie, the organization — depicted as one known for its secrecy and power — set out to handle growing attention by using the Internet, books and pamphlets.

Opus Dei members include Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman for Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and Robert P. Hanssen, the FBI agent who pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union in 2001.

“Inside the church and also in secular politics, I would say their influence gets radically exaggerated in the retelling,” said John L. Allen, Jr., author of Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church.

Part of the organization’s mystique stems from its role in Catholicism’s ideological wars after the Second Vatican Council, Allen said. It has been placed squarely in the church’s conservative tradition and enjoyed the attention of Pope John Paul II.

“Dan Brown didn’t create the Opus Dei myth,” Allen said. “He just took it mass market.”

One of Opus Dei’s main publicity tools is its revamped Web site, http://www.opusdei.org. In the past year, it had more than 1 million unique visitors, said Brian Finnerty, United States media relations director for Opus Dei.

In addition, an Opus Dei priest in Rome is blogging on the Da Vinci Code connection on http://www.davincicodeopusdei.com. And the stream of visitors to the U.S. headquarters in New York City — erroneously dubbed the world headquarters in Brown’s novel — are greeted with pamphlets on Jesus, the Catholic church and Opus Dei, Finnerty said.

Opus Dei members have also worked with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on a Web site to refute the book’s claims about the divinity and marriage of Jesus, http://www.jesusdecoded.com.

Barrett has gone head to head with Chris Matthews on TV’s Hardball and Matt Lauer on Today. He has taped interviews for upcoming programs on CNN and CBS.

The thoughtful 53-year-old priest with graying hair, soft blue eyes and a hint of the Bronx in his speech is also a contrast to actor Paul Bettany, who plays the monk who leaves a bloody trail in the movie.

Barrett became involved in Opus Dei in 1971 as an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York City. He worked with the group first during a career in the oil industry, as a stock broker and then as a priest. He worked in the group’s Rome office and was its vicar of Texas for 11 years before taking over duties as director of Holy Cross Chapel, owned by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston but run by Opus Dei.

Despite its recent supersized exposure, Opus Dei is relatively small — 87,116 members from the world’s estimated 1 billion Catholics, Finnerty said. In the United States, Opus Dei has about 3,000 members and in the Houston area, about 130. It has about 1,900 priests throughout the world.

The organization was founded in 1928 by Josemaria Escriva, a Spanish priest, to inspire lay people to approach life with holiness and a commitment to God.

“We didn’t want to just show up (at Mass) on Sundays and forget our faith the rest of the the week,” said Melanie Hebert, speaking of herself and husband, Jason.

The Heberts, both 26, are Opus Dei supernumeraries, married couples who commit to a schedule of daily prayer, spiritual reading, rosary recitation and Mass. They also go to confession weekly and participate in monthly and annual retreats.

Supernumeraries make up about 70 percent of Opus Dei’s membership. The organization also has numeraries, celibate single men and women who often live in houses owned by Opus Dei but hold secular jobs.

It is these members who participate in corporal mortification, a more controversial practice of Opus Dei. They spend about two hours a day wearing a cilice, a metal mesh band. Once a week, they hit themselves with a discipline, a whip of 18-inch fabric, cord-like strings with knots, while reciting a short prayer, Barrett said.

Critics question Opus Dei’s recruiting practices and claim it fosters a cult-like atmosphere among its celibate members.

Dianne DiNicola founded Opus Dei Awareness Network, a grass-roots organization based in Massachusetts to help former Opus Dei members, after her daughter’s experience as a celibate member of Opus Dei while a college student in Boston.

While in Opus Dei, her daughter’s personality changed and she became estranged from the family, DiNicola said. Eventually, DiNicola’s daughter left Opus Dei with the help of a professional counselor hired by her family, she said.

This renewed spotlight can be uncomfortable, said Opus Dei member Billy Omanga, a 34-year-old network administrator with a wife and daughter. As Omanga sees it, the main problem with The Da Vinci Code is how it portrays Christianity and the Catholic Church.

“This is not a big moment (for Opus Dei),” he said. “It is a moment that has come and we will make the best of it.”



Posted by Admin on 04/09 at 08:55 PM
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