The arrival of Disney's National Treasure is now just a couple of weeks away (November 19). Disney is going all out with the interactive goodies on film website: search for clues, find treasure, research the historical facts and assumptions behind the film.

Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, an achaeologist and treasure-hunter who discovers that a map to a priceless bounty lies on the back of the Declaration of Independence. To protect the country's most sacred document and uncover the extraordinary treasure to which it leads, Ben must confront a series of puzzles, secret codes and hidden messages from America's past.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub say they wanted the clues that drive the film to be based on REAL STUFF. Some of the areas where fact meets fimic fiction in National Treasure are:

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR TREASURE

Fact : The monastic secret-warrior society known as The Knights Templar excavated for ten years at the Temple of Solomon. Within two centuries, they became one of the most powerful and wealthy groups in Europe, leading many to assume they had amassed an enormous treasure. It was said that before the Knights met their end at the hands of The Pope and King Philip of France in 1307, they loaded their immense bounty onto a fleet headed for Scotland. Some believe the shipment was hidden on Nova Scotia's Oak Island and came to a fledgling America in the 1700s. Christopher Columbus also had connections to "The Knights of Christ," an offshoot of The Knights Templar.

The Film: Nobody knows if the Knights Templar Treasure exists or where it lies today. In NATIONAL TREASURE, the filmmakers imagine that it fell into the hands of America's Founding Fathers and was cleverly hidden . . until, generations later, Ben Gates finds the ultimate clue to its location. The mystery of the Knights Templar continues to entice in popular culture, as evidenced by Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, published after NATIONAL TREASURE was in the works.

THE FREEMASONS:

Fact: This secret society evolved from the remnants of the Knights Templar. Started as a loose association of medieval architects, the Freemasons went on to become an influential fraternity of the best and the brightest men in Europe. Known for their secrecy, as well as their wealth and power, Freemasons engaged in mysterious rituals and used ancient symbols as codes. The all-seeing eye and unfinished pyramid on the U.S. dollar bill are Freemason symbols. Many of the nation's Founding Fathers were Masons, including George Washington, John Hancock, Ethan Allen, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin. Some even believe the city of Washington, D.C. is laid out according to the grid concepts of Freemasons - in the mystical shape of the Virgo Constellation.

The Film: The Freemasons did leave cryptic symbols not only on the dollar bill but throughout their buildings - but were they possible clues to a hidden treasure? In the fictional NATIONAL TREASURE, The Freemasons of the past help to guide Gates, through puzzles and codes they've left behind, toward his DESTINY.