Concern expressed over the past weeks about scenes shot in Malta for The Da Vinci Code film are smashed once the film begins to be viewed in Malta as early as this evening.

All that is shown, which can be said to have been shot in Malta, is a shot of Roman soldiers on horseback passing over a bridge, shot at the entrance to Vittoriosa.

The other scene, the controversial Jesus weds Mary Magdalene scene which was shot in the Vittoriosa ditch, did not survive the cutting floor and was left out.

So much for judging a film before it appears!

Before showing the film to the film critics yesterday KRS’s Charles Pace made a number of points.

The film has come to Malta a week after it began showing in other countries because Columbia Pictures refused to allow prints to be given out before last Wednesday. There was not enough time, Mr Pace said, to return from London with a copy of the film, show it to the film censors and to the press and issue it for last weekend.

The reason Columbia gave was its fears that the film will be out on pirate copies even before it starts showing in cinemas.

This remark however, seems to have applied to all countries and not just to Malta as previous comments in the local press sounded like.

Another controversy regarded its rating. At 16, this is the highest rating in the world, and only Malta, Australia and New Zealand have given it so high a rating. Other countries ranged from universal to PG to 12.

Mr Pace said that, contrary to what some papers speculated, KRS is not against the rating but rather, it accepts it.

The same papers reported that pressure had been exercised on the film censors to put the film for 18 years old and over, and there has been some speculation that the film may have been cut so as to give a more amenable rating.

Mr Pace denied this: what viewers in Malta will see is the same two hours, 29 minutes they see anywhere else in the world.

The film has made $224 million in its first weekend viewing all over the world, yet this is not a record. Star Wars had grossed even greater revenue on its first weekend, though a national holiday may have increased the take.