[UPDATE: The Da Vinci Challenge site is suddenly out of service. Is it a glitch? Or was it shut down for some reason?]

The New York Times has already noticed a new Web site, just launched today, created by Sony Pictures and Grace Hill Media called The Da Vinci Challenge, where Christian writers will bring all kinds of extra attention to the movie of The Da Vinci Code by discrediting it right and left.

Amy Wellborn raises interesting questions about the whole endeavor here.

Me, I hope I can steer clear of The Da Vinci Code debate. The writing is nothing to shout about. Dan Brown treats a long-buried (albeit imaginative) heresy like hot stuff. And the movie’s being directed by Ron Howard, who has yet to make a movie that I really enjoy. I can’t wait for all of this to become ancient history, so we can look back and shrug and see how trivial all of the hoopla really was.

2006 has far, far more interesting films in store for us. Let’s not waste time, folks. Let’s direct people’s attention to the feasts, not the carefully packaged, over-hyped Happy Meals.

For example…

Where are the networks of Christians organizing to encourage people to see Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, one of the most stirring portrayals of faith ever to reach the big screen?

Privacy Preference Center