(M) Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Audrey Tautou, John Hurt

It's not only Dan Brown who has benefited from the publishing phenomenon that has caused controversy from the Vatican to your local church. Since publication of his work of fiction every major Christian publisher has put out a book refuting his claims.

Not since The Passion of the Christ has a movie mobilised the Christian church into this much action. And we have to ask ourselves, why?

When the film comes out, some may wonder what all the fuss and money spent was about. Others, intrigued by the fictional questions the book asks, may be enraptured by Ron Howard's reverent take on this piece of pulp fiction.

Whatever you think about The Da Vinci Code, you can bet that Sony is laughing all the way to the bank - for there's nothing like a bit of fuss to sell a movie. By all accounts, with Howard behind the camera and Tom Hanks in front and a faithful recreation of the book, the film version has been given the gravitas and Hollywood blockbuster treatment it needs to reach many more people than the 40 million books already sold worldwide.

But maybe its Audrey Tautou (interviewed in this month's Filmink), who stars alongside Hanks as the cryptologist Sophie Neveu, who should have the final word: "Nothing was toned down … It was obvious that [Howard] took the novel as pure fiction and treated it as such."

Adrian Drayton

Full review to come soon