John Calley on Da Vinci Code

We recently spoke to producer Brian Grazer about The Da Vinci Code, but now we have John Calley who is also credited as producer on the project. Calley explained the nature of the collaboration.

“The way it worked was I got a call from Ron Howard’s agent asking if we would be interested in Ron to direct it, and of course we would,” Calley said. “He and Ron are partners, Brian and Ron are partners. It’s just what you buy.”

The big news has been that Tom Hanks is in the running for the lead role of symbologist Robert Langdon. To those Code fans unsure about Hanks as an adventurer, Calley put his confidence in Howard. “I think that it depends upon how he’s rendered. Obviously, Ron Howard isn’t going to say, ‘He’s wrong but he means something at the box office.’ Because forgive me, in the best possible way, we don’t need a big gross star because I don't think The Da Vinci Code has to be supported by an actor’s name. It has to be well done. My sense is that if Ron feels that that’s the way he can do it, then he should do it that way. I don't think he’s deliberately trying to overcast the part just so that he can get a celebrity’s name on the title.”

Calley thinks that the production will be able to shoot at The Louvre for the film’s opening scenes. “We can certainly shoot exteriors, and we might want to build the interior aspects of the Louvre that we need because we want walls to come out to be able to shoot.”

Akiva Goldsman has completed the screenplay adaptation, which Calley said was executed “wonderfully.” As for handling all that dense exposition about religion, art and history, “It’s very hard to describe it, but he somehow is able to compress it. All the salient stuff is there, but it’s not as long. But if it works the first time, I’d like to do the full version in four or five days. I’m kidding.”

Though Grazer once said the film would increase the scale of the action, Calley suggested that it would not. “It’s as the book is, I would say. There’s not a significant difference. There’s no jets crashing and things like that.”

Calley expects filming to begin in June or July.