Angels & Demons
When I heard that Angels & Demons was going to follow in the footsteps of The Da Vinci Code and make it to the big screen it's fair to say that I was very excited.
For anyone who has read the book the revelation of the Pope's bedroom antics would have been enough to enrage the Catholic Church and millions of Catholics around the globe... a bit of controversy on the big screen always a good thing.
But those who read the book and went into cinema's expecting a good dig at the Catholic Church, as I was, will be sorely disappointed as the part where the Pope fathers a child is completely missed out.
So this leaves the question just how much influence does religion have on the box office? And why are filmmakers afraid of ruffling a few feathers?
It seems that director Ron Howard was afraid to tackle the major theme that drives events in the book, in a word he wimped out to keep in with the Catholic Church and the bible belt of America.
And while those who have never read a page will find Angels & Demons a great piece of entertaining cinema those who have read the original story with be desperately disappointed, as I was, that they didn't get the controversial movie that they were hoping for.
And this issue surroudning Angels & Demons really does follow in the footsteps of The Golden Compass, which faced similar criticisms.
On one side were the hard core fans of the novel who claimed that religious content had been diluted and on the other were religious organisations who called the film anti-Christian.
Despite grossing a healthy, if not exceptional, $372 million at the global box office it seems that The Golden Compass, the first in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, may remain one of a kind due to the Christian protests.
Similarly Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which depicts the final hours of Jesus' life, was labelled anti-Semantic as it appeared to blame Jews for the death of Jesus. Martin Scorsese's vision of the crucifixion The Last temptation of Christ sparked fury when some scenes showed Jesus living as a married man and fathering children.
While debate over the pros and cons of a single movie is healthy and to be expected it seems ridiculous that studios may choose not to shoot certain movies because of the religious implications that may come with it.
So I pose this question to Ron Howard why did you back out of including the pivotal revelation from the book? Filmmaking is about posing questions and tacking sensitive issues it's not merely a money making scheme, shame on you!
Angels & Demons is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Ron Howard