Julian Schnabel, the director of such acclaimed films as Basquiat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and my favorite At Eternity’s Gate, returned to Venice last year with In the Hand of Dante. It got savaged, and that’s putting it mildly. This despite an odd but starry cast of Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Jason Momoa, John Malkovich, Al Pacino, Franco Nero, and Martin Scorsese. Surprisingly, Netflix swooped in to land the rights back in March, and the film will get a theatrical run in June before hitting the streamer.
Isaac takes on dual roles as real-life writers Nick Tosche, author of the original novel, and the eponymous Dante, the Italian poet and philosopher known for Divine Comedy. In the Hand of Dante centers on a writer recruited to steal a handwritten Divine Comedy manuscript for a mob boss, while a parallel story set in the 14th-century centers on Dante as he seeks inspiration to craft his masterpiece.
The film had a checkered run even before its premiere. Just one month prior to Venice, the entire movie was leaked online. The box office prospects for this one were always going to be low, so I guess Netflix is the right home for it. At 153 minutes, it sounds like quite the endurance test.
SYNOPSIS: In the Hand of Dante follows the parallel lives of a New York author (Nick Tosches) in the 21st century who embarks on a violent journey after he is recruited by a mafia don to steal Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy written in the poet’s own hand, and Dante in the 14th century seeking inspiration to write his most important work – each man unknowingly connected through time and their obsessive quest for love, beauty, and the divine.
In the Hand of Dante hits select theaters on June 12th, followed by Netflix on June 24th.
