"Da Vinci" To Film in Louvre

 

French officials are close to giving Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard the final go-ahead to shoot scenes of his big-screen adaptation of author Dan Brown’s best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code in the famed museum, according to published reports.

“There is really a very strong desire to see the movie for this book, which has world renown, shot in the Louvre,” the Louvre’s director, Henri Loyrette was quoted as telling France-Inter radio. “It is a yes in principle from our side.”

As just about everyone knows by now, The Da Vinci Code follows globe-trotting Harvard art historian, Professor Robert Langdon, on his quest to decipher clues found in Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous paintings that unravel a centuries-old conspiracy that threatens to bring down Christianity.

Tom Hanks (news) signed on to play Langdon in November and Howard’s production team has since been busy gearing up for the shoot.

According to the daily newspaper Le Parisien, producers have been scouting exterior locations around Paris as well as interiors in the Louvre’s Grand Gallery where the novel opens.