CANNES -- How many ways can you say, "It's only a movie"?

Ron Howardand his cast from the "The Da Vinci Code" tried their damnedest to offer variations on that theme as they faced the international press here Wednesday, just hours before the official world premiere of the Sony Pictures release as the opening-night attraction at the 59th Festival de Cannes.

While the press kept raising the specter of worldwide controversy surrounding the film adaptation of the best-selling Dan Brown novel that suggests Christ married and had a child with Mary Magdalene, the filmmakers weren't biting.

Howard deflected a question about the first round of downbeat reviews by saying he simply hadn't read them. He then addressed the religious controversy, saying: "My feeling about that is that given the nature of this story, the controversial nature of this story, there's no question the film is likely to be upsetting to some people. My advice is, since virtually no one has seen the movie yet, is to not go see the movie if you think you're going to be upset. Wait, talk to someone who has seen it, and then arrive at your own opinion about the movie itself. But again, this is supposed to be entertainment. It's not theology. Yes, it's provoked conversation, but that's what good fiction does."

Hanks, ever affable, parried one questioner who wondered whether given the background of his wife, Rita Wilson, the Greek Orthodox community had brought any pressure on him for starring in the film as symbologist Robert Langdon. "No, not at all," Hanks said. "My heritage and that of my wife communicates that our sins have been taken away -- not our brains. I view this film as a great opportunity to discuss and to perhaps clarify one's own individual feelings about one's place in the universe and in the cosmos as well as in the mind of God.

"I don't think a motion picture of any sort of stripe -- particularly one that is obviously an entertainment, a work of fiction, something that is quite a commercial enterprise -- is going to essentially alter how anyone feels about their place and their own heritage," he said. "This is not a documentary."

It was actor and gay activist Ian McKellen, who plays Holy Grail enthusiast Sir Leigh Teabing in the film, who offered the most provocative sound bite when he mused: "I'm very happy to believe that Jesus was married. I know the Catholic Church has problems with gay people, and I thought this would be absolutely proof that Jesus was not gay."

Asked if he believed Christ might have wed, Howard replied: "People arrive at their individual conclusions. I'm not going to share my conclusion because that's not really very important. It's up to the viewer to experience the film, think about it, talk about it."

Alfred Molina, who appears in the movie as the threatening Bishop Aringarosa, said, "Much of this whole controversy -- and I think it's very much with a small c -- has been pressure from the media to find a story that somehow feels juicy and sexy."

Added McKellen: "A serious point which occurs to me -- when the book came out the controversies that you are all interested in didn't seem to exist. Is that because readers can be trusted to have minds, whereas people who go to see movies are the mindless masses who need to be protected? I think there's a bit of snobbery going on as regards to cinema."