It's the controversial passion of da code

Gay cowboys and controversial journalists aside, the film making the most noise in 2006 is director Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's controversial best seller, The Da Vinci Code. The film, which stars Tom Hanks, Sir Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina and Paul Bettany is expected to be released world-wide on May 19, but already the release of the film has had a shadow cast over it in the form of a copyright court case in London. Cashing in on the phenomenal success of the book, which has already sold more than 40 million copies around the world, Sony Pictures wasted no time in turning the story about the legacy of Jesus Christ into a potential blockbuster by paying $6-million for the film rights and signing on big names like Hanks and Howard. However, two authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are suing Brown's publisher, Random House, over what they claim is the theft of the idea put forward by them in their own book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. [More]