Christians in general, and Catholics in particular, are bracing for round two.

Is the Bible a carefully crafted Christian conspiracy or sacred scripture? Was Jesus the Messiah or a mere mortal? Was Mary Magdalene simply a disciple of Christ, or his secret spouse?

Those are a few of the questions to be revisited in popular culture again next week as Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou bring Dan Brown's best-selling novel, "The Da Vinci Code," to life on the big screen. As one of the biggest fictional blockbusters of all time, the book has sold nearly 50 million copies since its release in 2003.

It has also spawned dozens of "decoding" books by a wide spectrum of Christians, aimed at providing factual answers to the myriad questions it raises by claiming the status of fiction based on "fact."

The hype surrounding the movie's release may seem a bit overblown, yet the story line has raised enough concern that several Catholic cardinals and a coalition of Catholic groups have called for an outright boycott of the film. The story says the early Christian church "created" the divinity of Jesus postmortem and hid the secret of Christ's marriage to Mary Magdalene and their offspring from the world for two millennia — all while downgrading the status of women in the church.

As the book began to gain blockbuster status, thousands of Utahns joined millions of Americans in water-cooler discussion about the book's premise, and speculated over which of the details about ancient secret societies and early Christian conspiracies were fact vs. fiction. Public forums drawing hundreds of participants were held at a variety of local venues, including Brigham Young University and the Salt Lake Theological Seminary.

Catholic priests and bishops were routinely questioned, and the local Catholic diocese continues to field numerous calls, according to spokeswoman Monica Howa-Johnson.

"We've been getting calls on this for months and months — people calling randomly, inquiring about the nature of the book, some to rage about and others to complain that we need to do something. We're getting a whole gamut" of inquiry, with calls going "sometimes to a secretary at the front desk, and sometimes targeting other people.

"Since the book has been out, we have been dealing with it. Being the head of the Catholic Church in Utah, people will call to vent or get more information."