Looks like Tom Hanks has landed a plum role with his old team mates Ron Howard and Brian Grazer from roles in Splash and Apollo 13 in the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. (Wow…that was a lot of links!)
Coming Soon have it that they will be taking their time to cast:
…plan to hire actual foreign actors to play the book’s foreign characters. “If there’s any book that’s supposed to be an international thriller, says Grazer, “this is it.” Grazer tells Newsweek that one recent Oscar winner inquired about the role of Parisian cryptologist Sophie Neveu, “and she could easily do it. But I think the audience would be let down a bit. They expect a French girl.” As for the role of bullish cop Bezu Fache, Gordon reports that Jean Reno is on Grazer’s short list.
I think this sounds like good news on the casting front. I like it that they are not going to throw big names at it and come out with a blockbuster but actually try to cast actors into the novels characters. Hollywood shows some intelligence, but then I think you could credit this duo with some of that already.
What is also interesting in the article is that the creator of the series 24, Joel Surnow was actually keen to get this and make it into a 24-style TV series! The travesty! Mind you, it would have great potential.
The idea of a TV series may not have been too crazy, reading an article in this weekends Guardian (UK) newspaper a reviewer describes the novel akin to a computer game where each chapter is like a new level. When one is cleared and solved you move on to the next which is harder and more intense. As an aside, she claimed that some of the descriptions of locations are straight out of a Google search!
However, Brown didn’t let them get it and held out for Sony at a mere $6 million. Do you like Aston Martin’s Mr Brown? I think this could just be the start of many movie deals for him.
If you’re looking for more, check outRotten Tomatoes Da Vinci Code Movie or AskMen.com Da Vinci Code Movie for the latest updates, reviews, photos, biographies, and more!