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Vatican 'put obstacles' in way of filming The Da Vinci Code prequel

He said the Catholic Church had made it difficult to film Angels & Demons, the prequel to Dan Brown's best-selling novel.

Howard told The Independent: "We experienced a lot of obstacles in shooting. We were even taken away from areas that weren't controlled by the Vatican."

In June the Vatican banned the makers of Angels & Demons from entering the Holy See and any church in Rome.

Instead they shot scenes in studios and relocated to Caserta, near Naples.

Father Marco Fibbi, a Vatican spokesman, said at the time: "Usually we read the script but in this case it wasn't necessary. Just the name Dan Brown was enough."

The Vatican attacked The Da Vinci Code as heretic when it was published and was equally vehement about the film version.

The fictional novel proposed that Jesus sired a secret bloodline through Mary Magdalene that had lasted to the present day. It also painted the Catholic Church - and in particular the Opus Dei sect - as sinister organisations...

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)