If Ron Howard were ever to bump into William Donohue, president of the Catholic organization that has railed against Howard’s Robert Langdon films for being anti-Catholic, I hope the director will have the grace to say… "Thank you." Back in 2006, Donohue and his Catholic League spearheaded the protests against the cinematic adaptation of author Dan Brown’s conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code. The Tom Hanks-starring film went on to gross only $758 million worldwide. Every film should be so contested.
Maybe that’s what Howard had in mind when he penned a provocative essay for yesterday’s Huffington Post, defending himself and his upcoming sequel, Angels & Demons, against charges of anti-Catholicism. Though Donohue had recently criticized the film, the hubbub and response was relatively muted compared to 2006’s fracas. Similarly, it appeared as if Angels & Demons might just slip quietly into theaters unmolested. No more. Within hours, Donohue responded to Howard’s essay with a statement, calling Howard “delusional” and accusing him of “hating Catholicism.” And now we suddenly find the Web abuzz with discussion of Howard’s upcoming film.
Well played, Mr. Howard. Donahue might be your biggest critic, but he’s also your greatest publicity tool.
Do you think the Catholic League will have any impact on the success of Angels & Demons this time around? Do you think Howard really felt compelled to defend himself in The Huffington Post, or was his essay part of a grander strategy to promote his film, by any means necessary?
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I don’t think he was doing anything but a pre-emptive strike against the backlash he suspects is coming. Personally I despise the church, but that has nothing to do with my interest in the movie. Angels and Demons is a great book with a riveting story. Im looking forward to the movie based on the merits of the work itself, nothing else. But hey, if it gets more people to go see it, then more power to Howard for making his comments.
the movie will be a huge success, not because it will be bashed by the Catholic League or the Vatican, but because the novel was immensely popular and many people have been anticipating the ’sequel’ (even though it isn’t one) to The Da Vinci Code
TBH, I don’t think DaVinci Code needed the Catholic League to make its money. Here’s why:
1) DaVinci Code was a mega-huge bestseller. (I recognize that trickle-down theory might undercut my above claim, but I’ll continue;
2) Ron Howard is an academy award winning big box office draw: Splash; Cocoon; Parenthood; Backdraft; Apollo 13; Ransom; The Grinch; A Beautiful Mind;
3) Tom Hanks is … well … Tom Hanks.
While it never hurts to have Catholic organizations lambast your product (please, ask Billy Joel about the career-saving “backlash” against “Only the Good Die Young”), I think in this case, attributing the success of the DaVinci Code to Catholic League is slightly misleading.
A negative response? Possible but unlikely. Mr. Donahue, as Langdon says in the upcoming movie “Jeez, you guys don’t even read your own history do you?”. The church did make attacks against men of science, possibly the illuminati. How severe those attacks were is up to interpretation, but there were attacks. Look it up in the library Donahue, once you’re done burning all the books. Also, was that Canadian priest by any chance one of the people who sabotaged filming of the movie during production? It could be somebody else but I wasn’t there. Finally Donahue, I must end with saying that even if none of it is true you must remember that IT’S JUST A STORY! A very good and compelling story but a story none the less. So good job at creating an uproar Donahue. Maybe next time you can give us your opinion on the end of the earth in 2012. Oh wait. That’s not real either is it?
I can’t think of Bill Donahue anymore without remembering Jesus killing him with a throwing star on “South Park”.
Anyway, the hubbub over this movie makes even less sense than that of “Code”. This one has the Catholics as the VICTIMS, not the perps, and one of the book’s most endearing characters is a 70+ cardinal who’s storyline resolution factors heavily into the “satisfied ending” quotient.
Let’s do an experiment, shall we?
Let’s take the plot, locations and characters of A&D, and transplant them all to, say, San Francisco, and have the conspiracy be members of GLAAD.
Or let’s transplant them all to an inner city neighborhood and have the conspiracy be members of the NAACP.
I mean, fair’s fair… no?
The bottom line is, if you include members of an internationally beloved organization, religious-or-not, and paint them with a broad brush, you WILL get people riled. Justifiably.
That doesn’t mean A&D will fail. But don’t forget: “Priest”, “Last Temptation of Christ”, “Stigmata” and “Dogma” were all underperformers for the controversy they ensued. And Ron Howard’s last picture? “Frost/Nixon”, Academy-Award bait, to some his very best picture, f-l-o-p-p-e-d.
I foresee that A&D will fail to break even; not because of Donohue, but because Howard so screwed up DVC, making a can’t-miss-proposition into a crashing bore.
Bill Donahue is a gift that just keeps giving. He and his band of loons keep boycotting and unintentionally throwing the spotlight on movies or books that would have a mediocore response at best and turning them into hits. Hope Opie sends him a fruit basket and a thank you card when Angels & Demons hits the $100 million mark.
nick, frost/nixon didn’t flop. It broke even. Barely, but it did it. It was also a limited release film. Ron Howard has successes and failures and Angels and Demons looks like a success. Don’t say Ron Howards awful because he’s not.
as a catholic, i’ve not been offended by either angels & demons or the da vinci code. but as a catholic, i have been offended by the anti-catholic twilight novels (breaking dawn was the worst in its anti-catholic message). i can’t believe no one has said anything about its anti-catholic statements! then again…twilight fans probably aren’t smart enough to figure that out, since i’ve had to explain to many how it’s based on mormon principles. why doesn’t the catholic league do something about these books/films?
Just to clear up America: not all catholics are friggin nuts, or the worst of the worst. Some of us are pretty stable, realistic humans.
In my opinon, Angels and Demons was a better book than The DaVinci Code. I’m pretty sure many people will say the same thing.
Let’s hope the same for the movie.
The Catholic church needs to be more worried about child molesting priests than a FICTIONAL movie.
Let’s have some sense of proportion here. The Catholic Church has 2000 years of blood on its hands, and is at it still, fomenting hatred of GLBT people, trying to prevent people at risk of HIV from using condoms, and attempting to ensure that underage girls impregnated by rape or incest carry the fetuses to term. But has ONE Catholic anywhere been harmed as a result of Dan Brown or his books? I’m sure some in the Church pine for the Good Old Days when they could compel censorship of books and movies. But then, that’s how medieval theocracies go. Just ask the mullahs.
Yeah. Elizabeth’s right. Were not all crazy. It’s just these nutso guys like Donahue who make it seem that way. I mean, Donahue obviously missed the part in Howard’s essay when he said “it would be a lie if I said the movie was anything but fiction”. Donahue went on to call Howard delusional which is really insulting and not something that an every day catholic let alone the president of the catholic league should say. It’s that kind of non-catholic statement that would lead somebody to lose faith. It’s horrible really.
To blackbutton:
from imdb:
Frost/Nixon:
Budget
$35,000,000 (estimated)
Final Gross:
$18,593,156 (USA) (22 March 2009)
This doesn’t take into account advertising costs (including that which accompanied the Oscar-season promotion). Nor does it take into account foreign revenues… but, the lack of data here only serves the greater question, if Americans wouldn’t drop $10.50 to see a film about Nixon, why should we expect other countries to?
As for it being a limited release film, well, so was Slumdog Millionaire–which was apparently good enough and popularly received enough to break out of the limited distribution it was initially subject to.
I know that EW is in the tank for anything against Donohue, but the last film Donohue railed against was sure-thing The Golden Compass, and that failed to break $100 mil. (And you would suspect Donohue would go against _Doubt_, but they found nothing objectionable with that film).
In short, get your facts right.
You’d think that the Catholic Church would be more concerned with its real problems than with a fictional story, but I guess they’re not as glamorous. That said, though, I’m not surprised the Church isn’t a fan of Dan Brown’s, given that he’s drunk his own Kool-Aid and believes that the DaVinci Code conspiracy is true.
Nick says: Let’s do an experiment, shall we?
Let’s take the plot, locations and characters of A&D, and transplant them all to, say, San Francisco, and have the conspiracy be members of GLAAD.”
Yeah, well, the day that the leaders of GLAAD get up and say that Catholics are immoral, intrinsically disordered obstacles to peace who don’t deserve the same rights as non-Catholics is the day I’ll take your analogy seriously. Seriously.
A fictional movie about a fictional subject matter, who cares. I have “real world” issues to deal with. Btw your Jewish carpenter boss was fired for incompetence and taking unwarranted bonuses during a recessive economy…
Nice smear tactics, Mishi. And way to insult the faith of a billion people around the world. Comparing the Vatican to the mullahs is a nice touch, though last I knew the Catholic Church didn’t control any states or terrorist organizations.
Mishi,
I think you should be careful when grouping Gay, Lesbian and Bi-Sexual individuals with Transexuals. Transexuals are sexually perverse and delusional. Anyone who is willing to mutilate their body in order to change genders clearly has some issues.
It’s a work of fiction people! Get over it.
To mishi: GLAAD has actually done that, as many of its members and proponents have vandalized churches, sued wedding photographers, and slammed beauty pagent runner-ups. Welcome to life outside the bubble.
Just watch the movie if Howard’s doing it the movie will be great
I won’t be seeing it, but not because of it’s subject matter. I read and loved the book. I also loved the book The Di Vinci Code. The movie however… Yeah that just sucked. I expect much the same for Angels & Demons.
take a chance kristen. I’ve seen clips and it looks faster, more exciting, and thought-provoking. Don’t give up. The main problem with the Da Vinci Code was the screenwriter’s over-devotion to the source which slowed down the pace. Now they have a new writer and the film is supposed to be under 2 hours long.
Unlike the Da Vinci Code, the Catholic Church is on the side of the good guys in “Angels and Demons”–it’s the Illuminati who are the bad guys. And there are plenty of conservative Catholics who think that the Illuminati are a vast,evil conspiracy.
What’s anti-Catholic about “Angels and Demons”? Don’t get it.
Only 24 hours later, and less than 30 comments? This movie’s lack of buzz among EW readers so wonderfully contradicts the “$$$$$$$$” that the headline promised. Looks like most people have the Ron Howard + Dan Brown + Hanks Hair = waste of six-and-a-half-hours (or what it seems to be).
BTW, I am producing a movie on Ron Howards family. In the movie based on my research I say his father was a drug pusher and his mother is a prostitute and that Ron Howard engages in S&M. All of the portrayal of Ron Howard and his family in my movie and the prequel I am doing later will be highly negative. I will present the Howard family as something totally based on lies and question whether his parents really were his parents in the first place. My hero will follow clues that prove this evidence.
Now of course this is just a movie…
H/T: http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/
I don’t know much about this moovie but in the devinci code yes it was fiction but ignorant people think its true and then hate the Catholic church. All of the devinci code is a load of garbage and should have a warning before the film.
I don’t know much about this moovie but in the devinci code yes it was fiction but ignorant people think its true and then hate the Catholic church. All of the devinci code is a load of garbage and should have a warning before the film.
I don’t know much about this moovie but in the devinci code yes it was fiction but ignorant people think its true and then hate the Catholic church. All of the devinci code is a load of garbage and should have a warning before the film.
Its always so amusing to watch the catholic haters come out of the woodwork. It truly is the last acceptable bigotry. And now its more “hip” than ever. I just love the way the liberals who so espouse “tolerance” spew the most hateful intolerant trash imaginable. They’re only tolerant if you agree with them. They’re too stupid to realize they’re only showing their true colors. We’ve seen many of the ilk come and go the last 2000 years and we’ll see many more before its over with! Keep on slugging. The church will be around long after the likes of Ron Howard, and every other hate monger and hate monging organization is long gone. You can count on it.