Tickets are selling fast for The Da Vinci Code which goes on general release tomorrow.

Cinemas across Sussex said seats for the controversial movie were being snapped up.

The Tom Hanks' blockbuster, predicted to be the highest-grossing movie of the year, contains scenes shot at Shoreham Airport and an Opus Dei base nestled in the Sussex countryside.

A spokesman for Cineworld, which has cinemas in Brighton, Chichester, Eastbourne and Crawley, said it anticipated being very busy.

He said: "We think it is going to be the biggest movie of the year."

Fan Debbie Hilton, 32, from Brighton, said she was planning a Da Vinci Code day on Friday by rereading the book and then going to see the film.

She said: "I just hope it lives up to the book because it is a really superb read and very original."

A series of other events have been arranged to mark the film's release.

Members of Christ Church in Brighton, who normally meet in the Circus Circus pub, will gather in Starbucks, the Western Road coffee shop, to investigate the controversial themes of the Da Vinci Code.

In the book it is claimed Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene and that descendants of the couple are alive today.

Dr Garry Williams, a Bible scholar, will lead the Christ Church group during the debate.

The Reverend Carl Chambers, of Christ Church, said: "He will be looking at the historical claims made by Dan Brown, who wrote the book, in the light of evidence from documents available to the early church, two thousand years ago.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, who play the film's central characters Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, were among the cast members at Shoreham Airport during secret filming last year.

It was transformed to look like Le Touquet airport in France to shoot a major scene towards the end of the film.

Cinema-goers will see the airport as never before, with the Le Touquet name emblazoned across the front of the Art Deco terminal.

A series of spectacular lights was put along the front of the terminal's bar and east side to provide a dramatic effect.

It is thought the scene includes Hanks and Tautou running from the terminal to a waiting plane.

The Da Vinci Code has more than fictional connections to Sussex.

Opus Dei, the controversial Catholic movement which features in the book and film, has a little-known base in East Grinstead.

In the book, the movement is depicted as a highly secretive organisation hell-bent on preventing the unravelling of the Da Vinci Code.

Real Opus Dei members of all ages regularly attend three-day silent retreats at Wickenden Manor, Chilling Street, for personal prayer and meditation.

Opus Dei was unable to comment on its activities to The Argus.

The Wickenden Manor website said: "The retreats at Wickenden Manor are geared to ordinary lay people who would like to combine a busy working and family life with a deep spiritual life.

"Retreats at Wickenden Manor are directed by Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church.

"Opus Dei aims to help people of all walks of life to strive for holiness and to evangelise in a natural manner wherever they are, especially through their daily work."