Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Opus Dei backs film project


Roland Joffe knows his latest film will be controversial but says it is not meant as a response to "The Da Vinci Code," whose bad guys were members of the Opus Dei movement of the Roman Catholic Church.

Joffe is in Argentina directing a biopic of Opus Dei founder Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, who sided with Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War and allegedly spoke positively of Adolf Hitler. The church dismissed the controversies before Escriva was canonized as a saint.

Opus Dei is financing the film, "There Be Dragons," but Joffe said it isn't a propaganda project. Opus Dei members on the set said he has "creative space" to make the film he wants.

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