Saw screenplay of DA VINCI CODE at bookstore today ... Interesting to read before having seen movie or read novel -- was gripping (got about 10 pages in)...

The book had separate intros by Ron Howard (director) & Akiva Goldsmith (screenwriter) among others ... Goldsmith adapted it from the novel, of course - said he had read novel before he was approached by Howard (for whom he also wrote screenplay for A BEAUTIFUL MIND)... At first Goldsmith wasnt sure if it'd make a good movie, b/c novel had too much dialogue & backstory ... Then he reread it a couple of times & wrote a spec script -- which Howard says was so good it could've started a bidding war, even without the novel ... Then Goldsmith rewrote the script a ton bunch of times, and -- contrary to normal convention-- Howard allowed Goldsmith on the set, to contribute... They rehearsed it with Goldsmith there, before shooting -- and they revised parts of it this way (as a group), with Goldsmith having the final say, I think...

They had cartoonists sketch out the storyboard beforehand to help Howard shoot it, as well...

Then after they filmed, they edited it, to be different from Goldsmith's final shooting script ...

I didnt know that much about the process before reading about it.

This is not to say anything about the novel/script itself as a product... I'm more interested in teh controversy ... see, e.g., http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060505/NEWS01/605050341 (Steve Munsey's crusade against the book)