MARSHA ATE GINA

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I've come to the point where I believe that every word that comes out of a Sony PR rep's mouth must either be a lie or spin.  With regards to their decision not to show a major expected-blockbuster film to theatre owners until a week prior to its release date (a virtual last-minute showing, in terms of allowing theatres to decide whether or not to show a film):

"The strategy, studio representatives say, is to preserve a climate of mystery and excitement around the movie […]" (Source.)

Right, so that sounds good enough.  Except for one thing: the movie in question is The Da Vinci Code.  You know, that book that everybody's been talking about since it was released almost 3 years ago?  Yeah.  That one.  The one that's had constant media attention to the point that it's highly unlikely that there's a large group of people who would be interested and intrigued by the movie, and yet still not know what the plot of the book is (even if they haven't read it).  (Hint, for those who haven't: it's like Holy Blood, Holy Grail, only with more anagrams.)  Ok, so they supposedly changed around the film's final act according to reports from Cannes — changes that caused laughter to erupt among viewers at the festival.

Which leads me to my point: basically, I can't help but wonder if this secrecy isn't to preserve the mystery and excitement, but rather to do two things.  The first is to keep the public from knowing that this is (from early reports) a dull and wooden movie until after they've made some of their money back over opening weekend.  The second is actually to create, rather than preserve, an air of mystery about a film whose plot has been hashed, rehashed, and debated to death in the media for the past 3 years.