BEIJING, Jan. 20-- Amelie actress Audrey Tautou is to join Tom Hanks in the film adaptation of the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code.

Hanks will play Robert Langdon, a Harvard expert in ancient symbols, in the movie, directed by Oscar-winner Ron Howard.

Tautou has been signed up as the female lead character, French cryptologist Sophie Neveu.She teams up with Langdon to solve the murder of the curator of the Louvre art gallery in Paris.

The controversial novel by Dan Brown, about a global conspiracy to suppress the truth about Jesus and his marriage to Mary Magdalene, has been a worldwide bestseller.

While Howard, a former star of TV show Happy Days, wanted a French actress to get the part, US studio bosses were thought to prefer a better known actress, with Britain's Kate Beckinsale tipped as one of the possibilities.

Brian Grazer, one of the film's producers, told entertainment bible Variety that they had received permission to film in the Louvre, and that the movie would stay true to the book.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)