Originally posted over at Creators.co
As someone who read Inferno, I’m interested to see the movie version. I realized however that this week is the ten year anniversary of the first film in the Robert Langdon series, The Da Vinci Code. When it was released back in 2006, it was a nothing short of a global phenomenon. This was due to the massive controversy surrounding the source material: A novel that had its fair share of critics.
The book’s plot centered on a centuries-long cover up involving an alleged descendants of Jesus Christ. Needless to say, the Catholic Church itself wasn’t too jazzed about novel when it was released and the world was waiting to see how the film was going to handle such a delicate subject.
What we got was a straight up adventure film that contained car chases, puzzles, and a race against time. It was an excellent entry into the oft-forgotten genre but not nearly as iconoclastic as people made it out to be.
What was most interesting about The Da Vinci Code film (at least in my opinion) was the marketing surrounding its release. There was one of the first instances of a major motion picture offering a ‘Web Quest’ where folks had to solve puzzles online to win a prize. There was also an array of alternate web addresses led to different aspects of the movie. The (now defunct) URL SoDarkTheConOfMan.com was one I could think of off the top of my head. It really made the idea of solving a case of that magnitude fun. This sort of thing gets seen as old school or passé now but back then, it was pretty ingenious.
This week, I think I’m going to fire up the ol’ DVD player and check out Robert Langdon’s most epic adventure. What about you? Sound off in the comments below.
Flobo Boyce 