Heading from London to Cannes for Wednesday's world premiere of The Da Vinci Code, the stars of the film found themselves speeding into the record books. Audrey Tautou, Tom Hanks and Paul Bettany - who plays the murderous monk Silas - boarded a specially chartered Eurostar train at Waterloo Station, which made the longest, non-stop international rail trip.
Accompanying them on the nine-hour, £300,000 journey were co-stars Ian McKellen and Jean Reno, as well as 200 VIP guests whose glasses were topped up with a constant supply of champagne. The on-board fare also included caviar and luxury cheeseboards representing every region of France the train passed through.
On the train, specially re-christened The Da Vinci for the occasion, was an official from Guinness World Records who certified the attempt.
At their destination, a life-size replica of the Louvre glass pyramid had been built to represent the Paris museum where the movie starts. The screening at the French festival will cost another £1.5 million, with one of the most lavish after-show parties ever thrown.
For A Beautiful Mind actor Paul the whole experience has been a fantastic ride from day one when he got the call from director Ron Howard. "I took about 0.2 seconds to answer, and said yes," recalls the actor. "What was going on in my head was, monk-assassin, Ron Howard, 40 million copies sold. That's quite a lot of things that are already right about it."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
