Sunday, April 30, 2006
Boycott ‘Da Vinci Code’ film: top Vatican official
Boycott ‘Da Vinci Code’ film: top Vatican official
Reuters
Rome, April 29: The Vatican stepped up its offensive against ‘The Da Vinci Code’ when a top official close to Pope Benedict blasted the book as full of anti-Christian lies and urged Catholics to boycott the film.The latest broadside came from Archbishop, Rev Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office which was headed by Pope Benedict until his election last year. Rev Amato, addressing a Catholic conference in Rome yesterday, called the book ‘stridently anti-Christian .. Full of calumnies, offences and historical and theological errors regarding Jesus, the gospels and the Church.” he added: “I hope that you all will boycott the film.”
The movie, which is being released by Sony Pictures Division Columbia Pictures, stars Tom Hanks and premieres next month at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Sony Pictures is the media wing of Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp.
Rev Amato said the book, written by Dan Brown, had been hugely successful around the world thanks in part to what he called “the extreme cultural poverty on the part of a good number of the Christian faithful.”
The book has sold over 40 million copies. The novel is an international murder mystery centred on attempts to uncover a secret about the life of Christ that a clandestine society has tried to protect for centuries. The central tenet of the book is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children.
In his address to the group, Rev Amato said Christians should be more willing “to reject lies and gratuitous defamation.” He said that if “such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran or the holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising.”
He added: “Instead, if they are directed against the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished.” Rev Amato suggested that Catholics around the world should launch organised protests against the ‘The Da Vinci Code’ film just as some had done in 1988 to protest against Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’
Rev Amato’s broadside was just the latest blast against the book and the film. Just before Easter, another Vatican official railed against it at an event attended by Pope Benedict, branding the book and its film version as just more examples of Jesus being sold out by a wave of what he called ‘pseudo-historic’ art.
Catholic group Opus Dei has told Sony Pictures that putting a disclaimer on the movie stressing it is a work of fiction would be a welcome show of respect toward the Church. In the novel and film, Opus Dei is characterised as the latest in a series of secretive groups that worked over the centuries to obscure truths about Jesus Christ.
Opus Dei is a controversial conservative church group whose members are mostly non-clerics and are urged to seek holiness in their everyday professional jobs and lives. It has rejected criticisms that it is secretive and elitist.
With the movie’s opening less than a month away, Opus Dei and other Christian groups have been sponsoring web sites and events telling people the novel should not be believed. The book is a thriller in which the main characters must uncover clues they hope will lead them to an important religious relic. Their adversary is an Opus Dei member.
Boycott ‘Da Vinci Code’ film: top Vatican official
Boycott ‘Da Vinci Code’ film: top Vatican official
Reuters
Rome, April 29: The Vatican stepped up its offensive against ‘The Da Vinci Code’ when a top official close to Pope Benedict blasted the book as full of anti-Christian lies and urged Catholics to boycott the film.The latest broadside came from Archbishop, Rev Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office which was headed by Pope Benedict until his election last year. Rev Amato, addressing a Catholic conference in Rome yesterday, called the book ‘stridently anti-Christian .. Full of calumnies, offences and historical and theological errors regarding Jesus, the gospels and the Church.” he added: “I hope that you all will boycott the film.”
The movie, which is being released by Sony Pictures Division Columbia Pictures, stars Tom Hanks and premieres next month at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Sony Pictures is the media wing of Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp.
Rev Amato said the book, written by Dan Brown, had been hugely successful around the world thanks in part to what he called “the extreme cultural poverty on the part of a good number of the Christian faithful.”
The book has sold over 40 million copies. The novel is an international murder mystery centred on attempts to uncover a secret about the life of Christ that a clandestine society has tried to protect for centuries. The central tenet of the book is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children.
In his address to the group, Rev Amato said Christians should be more willing “to reject lies and gratuitous defamation.” He said that if “such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran or the holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising.”
He added: “Instead, if they are directed against the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished.” Rev Amato suggested that Catholics around the world should launch organised protests against the ‘The Da Vinci Code’ film just as some had done in 1988 to protest against Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’
Rev Amato’s broadside was just the latest blast against the book and the film. Just before Easter, another Vatican official railed against it at an event attended by Pope Benedict, branding the book and its film version as just more examples of Jesus being sold out by a wave of what he called ‘pseudo-historic’ art.
Catholic group Opus Dei has told Sony Pictures that putting a disclaimer on the movie stressing it is a work of fiction would be a welcome show of respect toward the Church. In the novel and film, Opus Dei is characterised as the latest in a series of secretive groups that worked over the centuries to obscure truths about Jesus Christ.
Opus Dei is a controversial conservative church group whose members are mostly non-clerics and are urged to seek holiness in their everyday professional jobs and lives. It has rejected criticisms that it is secretive and elitist.
With the movie’s opening less than a month away, Opus Dei and other Christian groups have been sponsoring web sites and events telling people the novel should not be believed. The book is a thriller in which the main characters must uncover clues they hope will lead them to an important religious relic. Their adversary is an Opus Dei member.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Another ‘Da Vinci’ Code Cracked
Another ‘Da Vinci’ Code Cracked
LONDON, April 28, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) The code has been cracked.
London lawyer Dan Tench and The Times newspaper on Friday both claimed to have solved the riddle of a code embedded in a judge’s ruling in “The Da Vinci Code” copyright lawsuit.
It reads: “Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought.”
The message was created by Peter Smith, the High Court judge who presided over the copyright infringement suit brought by authors of the nonfiction book “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” against the publisher of Dan Brown’s mega-selling thriller.
Smith’s entry in society bible “Who’s Who” lists him as a fan of John “Jackie” Fisher, a 19th-century admiral credited with modernizing the British navy and developing its first modern warship, the Dreadnought.
On April 7, Smith ruled that Brown had not copied from the earlier work for his book, which has sold more than 40 million copies since it was published in 2003.
London’s legal world has been in a whirl since it was revealed earlier this week that Smith had encoded a message within the 71-page judgment. A sequence of italicized letters was sprinkled throughout the text, with the first 10 spelling out “Smithy code” — an apparent clue, and a play on the judge’s name.
The rest of the letters seemed random: jaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzvz.
Italics are placed in strange spots: The first is found in paragraph one of the 360-paragraph document. The letter “S” in the word claimants is italicized, The Early Show reports.
In the next graph, claimant is spelled “claiMant,” and so on.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View the ruling and take a crack at breaking the code yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tench, who brought the code to the world’s attention last week, said the key lay within the pages of Brown’s thriller.
At one point Brown’s cryptographer hero Robert Langdon explains the Fibonacci sequence — a mathematical progression that involves adding a number to the two numbers before, so that 1 is followed by 1, then 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. That sequence, when repeated and substituted with letters from the alphabet, spells out the cryptic message.
“It’s extremely curious that he would reference an obscure military figure,” Tench said of the message early Friday. “None of us were guessing that.”
Tench said he and two other attorneys in the London media law firm Olswang used the sequence and trial and error to decode the message. He said Smith had confirmed it was correct in an e-mail.
The Times newspaper arrived at the same conclusion. On Friday, it quoted Smith, 53, as saying he had inserted the code “for my own pleasure” and had not expected anyone to notice it.
“The answer has nothing to do with the case,” he said.
Tench said he noticed the code when he spotted the striking italicized script in an online copy of the judgment.
“To encrypt a message in this manner, in a High Court judgment no less? It’s out there,” Tench said. “I think he was getting into the spirit of the thing. It doesn’t take away from the validity of the judgment. He was just having a bit of fun.”
“I should think it’s pretty sophisticated,” Andrew Sinclair, Historian of the Knights Templar, remarked to CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. “Any judge with a sense of humor and a very clever man, which Peter Smith is, is going to do pretty well.”
“The Da Vinci Code” has sold more than 40 million copies — including 12 million hardcover copies in the United States — since its release in March 2003. It came out in paperback in the United States earlier this year and quickly sold more than a million copies.
An initial print run of 5 million has already been raised to 6 million.
Another ‘Da Vinci’ Code Cracked
Another ‘Da Vinci’ Code Cracked
LONDON, April 28, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) The code has been cracked.
London lawyer Dan Tench and The Times newspaper on Friday both claimed to have solved the riddle of a code embedded in a judge’s ruling in “The Da Vinci Code” copyright lawsuit.
It reads: “Jackie Fisher who are you Dreadnought.”
The message was created by Peter Smith, the High Court judge who presided over the copyright infringement suit brought by authors of the nonfiction book “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” against the publisher of Dan Brown’s mega-selling thriller.
Smith’s entry in society bible “Who’s Who” lists him as a fan of John “Jackie” Fisher, a 19th-century admiral credited with modernizing the British navy and developing its first modern warship, the Dreadnought.
On April 7, Smith ruled that Brown had not copied from the earlier work for his book, which has sold more than 40 million copies since it was published in 2003.
London’s legal world has been in a whirl since it was revealed earlier this week that Smith had encoded a message within the 71-page judgment. A sequence of italicized letters was sprinkled throughout the text, with the first 10 spelling out “Smithy code” — an apparent clue, and a play on the judge’s name.
The rest of the letters seemed random: jaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzvz.
Italics are placed in strange spots: The first is found in paragraph one of the 360-paragraph document. The letter “S” in the word claimants is italicized, The Early Show reports.
In the next graph, claimant is spelled “claiMant,” and so on.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View the ruling and take a crack at breaking the code yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tench, who brought the code to the world’s attention last week, said the key lay within the pages of Brown’s thriller.
At one point Brown’s cryptographer hero Robert Langdon explains the Fibonacci sequence — a mathematical progression that involves adding a number to the two numbers before, so that 1 is followed by 1, then 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. That sequence, when repeated and substituted with letters from the alphabet, spells out the cryptic message.
“It’s extremely curious that he would reference an obscure military figure,” Tench said of the message early Friday. “None of us were guessing that.”
Tench said he and two other attorneys in the London media law firm Olswang used the sequence and trial and error to decode the message. He said Smith had confirmed it was correct in an e-mail.
The Times newspaper arrived at the same conclusion. On Friday, it quoted Smith, 53, as saying he had inserted the code “for my own pleasure” and had not expected anyone to notice it.
“The answer has nothing to do with the case,” he said.
Tench said he noticed the code when he spotted the striking italicized script in an online copy of the judgment.
“To encrypt a message in this manner, in a High Court judgment no less? It’s out there,” Tench said. “I think he was getting into the spirit of the thing. It doesn’t take away from the validity of the judgment. He was just having a bit of fun.”
“I should think it’s pretty sophisticated,” Andrew Sinclair, Historian of the Knights Templar, remarked to CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. “Any judge with a sense of humor and a very clever man, which Peter Smith is, is going to do pretty well.”
“The Da Vinci Code” has sold more than 40 million copies — including 12 million hardcover copies in the United States — since its release in March 2003. It came out in paperback in the United States earlier this year and quickly sold more than a million copies.
An initial print run of 5 million has already been raised to 6 million.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Plans for building a cryptex
A visitor to our website wanted to share the CAD plans he designed for building a cryptex. I don’t have a description of how to use the plans, but I assume they’ll be self-explanatory to those of you interested in tackling this sort of project. There are three files to download; right-click and choose “Save Target As” to save each file to your hard drive.
Thanks again for sending these!
Plans for building a cryptex
A visitor to our website wanted to share the CAD plans he designed for building a cryptex. I don’t have a description of how to use the plans, but I assume they’ll be self-explanatory to those of you interested in tackling this sort of project. There are three files to download; right-click and choose “Save Target As” to save each file to your hard drive.
Thanks again for sending these!
Monday, April 17, 2006
THE DA VINCI CODE WALK - Walking Tours of London
2. THE DA VINCI CODE WALK
(1.5-2 HOURS)
Inspired by the world’s best-selling novel and blockbuster movie, this fully guided walk explores some of the key locations and links of a truly global phenomenon. See the magnificent 12th century Temple Church where Tom Hanks actually filmed one of the book’s most intriguing encounters. Witness the bizarre ‘mistaken locations’ of the novel and decide for yourself whether or not they are deliberate. Hear more about the book’s enthralling scenes in Westminster Abbey and the controversy surrounding attempts to film there. Finally discover how an ancient London Ley Line, like the Rose Line, has some odd connections… If you know what ‘avoid the candlewick’ means, then this is the walk for you!
Daily at 1.00pm
Starts: Trafalgar Square – Red Tour - Stop 9, Blue Tour – Stop 37
Finishes: Trafalgar Square – Red Tour - Stop 9, Blue Tour – Stop 37
THE DA VINCI CODE WALK - Walking Tours of London
2. THE DA VINCI CODE WALK
(1.5-2 HOURS)
Inspired by the world’s best-selling novel and blockbuster movie, this fully guided walk explores some of the key locations and links of a truly global phenomenon. See the magnificent 12th century Temple Church where Tom Hanks actually filmed one of the book’s most intriguing encounters. Witness the bizarre ‘mistaken locations’ of the novel and decide for yourself whether or not they are deliberate. Hear more about the book’s enthralling scenes in Westminster Abbey and the controversy surrounding attempts to film there. Finally discover how an ancient London Ley Line, like the Rose Line, has some odd connections… If you know what ‘avoid the candlewick’ means, then this is the walk for you!
Daily at 1.00pm
Starts: Trafalgar Square – Red Tour - Stop 9, Blue Tour – Stop 37
Finishes: Trafalgar Square – Red Tour - Stop 9, Blue Tour – Stop 37
Da Vinci Code Promo Breaks New Marketing Ground for Google
www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3599586
Da Vinci Code Promo Breaks New Marketing Ground for Google
By Pamela Parker
April 18, 2006
Google has teamed with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Columbia Pictures to create a puzzle-themed 24-day contest for the studio’s upcoming “Da Vinci Code” film. The program, which lets people opt-in to see contest updates on their personalized Google home pages, exemplifies the publisher’s efforts to take its relationships with marketers beyond paid search ads.
“This is really something new for us and we’re looking to do maybe a handful of these a year,” Dylan Casey, brand and entertainment manager for Google, told ClickZ. “It’s something we’re interested in pursuing to see how we can interact with our users and get some feedback as to how Google works as a platform for these types of initiatives.”
When users opt-in to add the “Da Vinci Code Quest on Google” module to their home pages, each day they see a link to a different puzzle. Once solved, each puzzle introduces a riddle that calls for the player to use Google Search, Google Maps, Google SMS or Google Video. Agency Big Spaceship worked with Google and Sony on the look and feel of the puzzles and microsite elements. The contest is aimed at audiences in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. The film, starring Tom Hanks, debuts in the U.S. on May 19.
Casey said characterizing the partnership as an advertising deal would be a mistake. Implying that no cash changed hands, Casey referred to it as a “highly collaborative project” which sprung from the two companies’ work together on AdWords campaigns for Sony Pictures films.
“We’ve always wanted to work with Google on a project, and this one made a lot of sense,” said Dwight Caines, EVP of worldwide digital marketing at Columbia TriStar Marketing Group. “Google’s brand is about providing information to people, providing answers to people who are in their daily lives trying to solve something. We thought it would be a good organic fit.” The “Da Vinci Code” story, originally told in a novel by Dan Brown, involves a Harvard professor of symbology who races around the world trying to solve various puzzles.
For Google, the deal allows it to showcase its personalized home page service, which works by allowing users to add content modules. It also lets the company involve users in its Search, Maps, SMS and Video products. “We’re really just hoping to show users interesting things that they can do with Google that are utilitarian and also interesting and fun,” Casey said.
Despite denying ambitions to become a portal, Google has been steadily adding offerings that keep users engaged at its site. Most recently, the company introduced a calendar program to go along with its Gmail and Talk offerings.
Still, Google is wary of being too intrusive with its advertising, so an opt-in program like the “Da Vinci Code Quest” is in keeping with its ethos. “The personalized home page is a great platform for this type of program because it allows the user to choose to add the content,” said Casey.
Though Google has been wildly successful with a low-key, largely text-based approach, competitors such as Yahoo!, MSN and AOL have a much wider palette of opportunities to draw from when working with advertisers. The “Da Vinci Code” program represents Google’s openness to more rich, immersive and integrated marketing efforts. But don’t expect Google to begin offering advertisers a menu from which to choose.
“Our approach to this type of project is going to be that it’s highly collaborative and highly custom,” said Casey.
Rather than putting together a dedicated team to deal with branded entertainment initiatives, Google will instead assemble ad-hoc groups to implement similar programs in the future. In this case, the company included software engineer Wei-Hwa Huang, a four-time World Puzzle Champion.
Columbia Pictures will promote the puzzle contest via its main film site and through search marketing on Google. It will also run an ad campaign on sites appealing to puzzle enthusiasts and on general movie-related sites. Additionally, the company expects to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing. The contest has already generated substantial buzz on Google-related blogs.
The first 10,000 people who complete all 24 puzzles will be invited to participate in a final 48-hour challenge. The grand prize winner will receive vacations to New York, Paris, London and Rome. Other prizes include a Bravia LCD television and a VAIO notebook computer.
Da Vinci Code Promo Breaks New Marketing Ground for Google
www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3599586
Da Vinci Code Promo Breaks New Marketing Ground for Google
By Pamela Parker
April 18, 2006
Google has teamed with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Columbia Pictures to create a puzzle-themed 24-day contest for the studio’s upcoming “Da Vinci Code” film. The program, which lets people opt-in to see contest updates on their personalized Google home pages, exemplifies the publisher’s efforts to take its relationships with marketers beyond paid search ads.
“This is really something new for us and we’re looking to do maybe a handful of these a year,” Dylan Casey, brand and entertainment manager for Google, told ClickZ. “It’s something we’re interested in pursuing to see how we can interact with our users and get some feedback as to how Google works as a platform for these types of initiatives.”
When users opt-in to add the “Da Vinci Code Quest on Google” module to their home pages, each day they see a link to a different puzzle. Once solved, each puzzle introduces a riddle that calls for the player to use Google Search, Google Maps, Google SMS or Google Video. Agency Big Spaceship worked with Google and Sony on the look and feel of the puzzles and microsite elements. The contest is aimed at audiences in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. The film, starring Tom Hanks, debuts in the U.S. on May 19.
Casey said characterizing the partnership as an advertising deal would be a mistake. Implying that no cash changed hands, Casey referred to it as a “highly collaborative project” which sprung from the two companies’ work together on AdWords campaigns for Sony Pictures films.
“We’ve always wanted to work with Google on a project, and this one made a lot of sense,” said Dwight Caines, EVP of worldwide digital marketing at Columbia TriStar Marketing Group. “Google’s brand is about providing information to people, providing answers to people who are in their daily lives trying to solve something. We thought it would be a good organic fit.” The “Da Vinci Code” story, originally told in a novel by Dan Brown, involves a Harvard professor of symbology who races around the world trying to solve various puzzles.
For Google, the deal allows it to showcase its personalized home page service, which works by allowing users to add content modules. It also lets the company involve users in its Search, Maps, SMS and Video products. “We’re really just hoping to show users interesting things that they can do with Google that are utilitarian and also interesting and fun,” Casey said.
Despite denying ambitions to become a portal, Google has been steadily adding offerings that keep users engaged at its site. Most recently, the company introduced a calendar program to go along with its Gmail and Talk offerings.
Still, Google is wary of being too intrusive with its advertising, so an opt-in program like the “Da Vinci Code Quest” is in keeping with its ethos. “The personalized home page is a great platform for this type of program because it allows the user to choose to add the content,” said Casey.
Though Google has been wildly successful with a low-key, largely text-based approach, competitors such as Yahoo!, MSN and AOL have a much wider palette of opportunities to draw from when working with advertisers. The “Da Vinci Code” program represents Google’s openness to more rich, immersive and integrated marketing efforts. But don’t expect Google to begin offering advertisers a menu from which to choose.
“Our approach to this type of project is going to be that it’s highly collaborative and highly custom,” said Casey.
Rather than putting together a dedicated team to deal with branded entertainment initiatives, Google will instead assemble ad-hoc groups to implement similar programs in the future. In this case, the company included software engineer Wei-Hwa Huang, a four-time World Puzzle Champion.
Columbia Pictures will promote the puzzle contest via its main film site and through search marketing on Google. It will also run an ad campaign on sites appealing to puzzle enthusiasts and on general movie-related sites. Additionally, the company expects to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing. The contest has already generated substantial buzz on Google-related blogs.
The first 10,000 people who complete all 24 puzzles will be invited to participate in a final 48-hour challenge. The grand prize winner will receive vacations to New York, Paris, London and Rome. Other prizes include a Bravia LCD television and a VAIO notebook computer.
About
Welcome to Cult of Dan Brown, a website for discussion of books by Dan Brown, and topics relating to the themes explored in Dan Brown's books. Our site features news and reviews, contests, and a very knowledgeable message board community. We welcome all types of friendly, on-topic discussion. Have a look around our site, forums and gallery if you haven't already done so. And, enjoy your stay!
| August 2008 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
Categories
Partners
Monthly Archives
Most recent entries
- Review of “The Testament”
- Review of “The Testament”
- Amateur historian finds final resting place of (perhaps) the real “Mona Lisa”
- Amateur historian finds final resting place of (perhaps) the real “Mona Lisa”
- Dan Brown in the news, January 2007
- Dan Brown in the news, January 2007
- A review of “The Art and Mythology of the DaVinci Code”
- A review of “The Art and Mythology of the DaVinci Code”
- Akiva Goldsman may get $4 million paycheque for ‘Angels and Demons’ screenplay
- Akiva Goldsman may get $4 million paycheque for ‘Angels and Demons’ screenplay
- Author McEwan denies “Atonement” copy claim
- Author McEwan denies “Atonement” copy claim
- Unlucky Monday the 27th
- Unlucky Monday the 27th
- “The Da Vinci Code” special edition giftset
- “The Da Vinci Code” special edition giftset
- ‘Da Vinci Code’ Opening Beats Expectation
- ‘Da Vinci Code’ Opening Beats Expectation
- The code that’s set to break records
- The code that’s set to break records
- Boycott ‘Da Vinci Code’ film: top Vatican official
- Boycott ‘Da Vinci Code’ film: top Vatican official
- Another ‘Da Vinci’ Code Cracked
- Another ‘Da Vinci’ Code Cracked
- Plans for building a cryptex
- Plans for building a cryptex
- THE DA VINCI CODE WALK - Walking Tours of London
- THE DA VINCI CODE WALK - Walking Tours of London
- Da Vinci Code Promo Breaks New Marketing Ground for Google
- Da Vinci Code Promo Breaks New Marketing Ground for Google