The Nativity Story will become the first film ever to premiere at the Vatican, the film's distributor has announced. The film, which is due to be released December 1, will be shown on Sunday, November 26 at the Vatican's Pope Paul VI Hall to an audience of appproximately 7,000 invited guests, including director Catherine Hardwick, actors Shohreh Aghdashloo and Oscar Isaac, producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, and screenwriter Mike Rich. The screening will benefit the construction of a school in Mughar, Israel, 40 miles from Nazareth. Rolf Mittweg, New Line President and COO of Worldwide Distribution and Marketing, said of the film, "We are very proud of The Nativity Story and extremely grateful that the Vatican has embraced the film in this way," says Mittweg. "We believe it is the perfect venue to present the film's universal message of hope and faith, a message we are sure will resonate around the world."

Interestingly, the press release makes no mention of Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 16-year-old actress who plays Mary in the film -- who, it was announced last month, is now herself pregnant out of wedlock. I'm curious whether Castle-Hughes was invited to the Vatican affair; I would sincerely hope that she was, and that she herself chose not to attend for whatever reason.

Is The Nativity Story on your radar for your December movie-going? I want to see it, myself, if only to see Castle-Hughes, who I absolutely loved in Whale Rider. She's an enormously talented young actress, and I hope she'll keep making movies once she adjusts to motherhood.

Now, if only the Vatican would screen Deliver Us From Evil ...

The New York Times has a piece up about how Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei has PR wheels in overdrive trying to distance itself from the upcoming film The Da Vinci Code. The book (and film) features a psychotic albino monk named Silas (played by Paul Bettany)  who is affiliated with Opus Dei, and depicts the secretive group as a powerful cult. According to the Times piece, Opus Dei leaders even contacted Sony Pictures last year, asking that any mention of the group be removed from the film, to no avail.

Opus Dei's website has an entire section devoted to The Da Vinci Code, which answers a number of issues presented in the book as factual. For instance, the Opus Dei site declaims the existence of a monastic order within the group, refutes any suggestion that it is a cult, and denies having any wealth or power to speak of (well, except for that $2.8 billion in assets and power positions in the Vatican).  

It's not all bad news for Opus Dei, though. The group has had significant publicity from the book and film (and isn't it true there's no such thing as bad publicity?), and the interest spurred by The Da Vinci Code has paved the way for Doubleday to publish an upcoming book, The Way, a collection of writings by the group's founder, Father Josemaría Escrivá, who was canonized for sainthood in 2002.

[ via Under a Neon Sign at Indiewire.com ]