Martin Scorsese will produce the Italy-set thriller, which has landed a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.

the-card-counter-poster-oscar-isaac-social-featuredImage via Focus Features

THE BIG PICTURE

 Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, and Gerard Butler team up in the crime thriller In the Hand of Dante produced by Martin Scorsese.
The movie is an adaptation of Nick Tosches’ novel, following a scholar who steals the original manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy.
The film features a talented trio of actors known for their versatile filmographies, including Isaac’s success in arthouse and blockbuster films, Momoa’s breakout role in Game of Thrones, and Butler’s reputation as a B-movie action hero.

An all-star trio of Oscar IsaacJason Momoa, and Gerard Butler are set to headline In the Hand of Dante, a new crime thriller.

Martin Scorsese will produce the film, which is now in production. Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) will helm In the Hand of Dante, which is an adaptation of the late Nick Tosches‘ 2002 novel of the same name, according to Deadline.

The novel centers around a fictionalized version of Tosches, a scholar who is recruited by mobsters to authenticate the original manuscript of Dante Alighieri‘s narrative poem The Divine Comedy.

Nick instead steals the manuscript, putting him on a collision course with destiny. This is compared and contrasted with the parallel narrative of Dante himself, as he escapes to Sicily and crafts his literary masterpiece in honor of his lost love, Beatrice.

Schnabel has been attached to the picture for some time; Johnny Depp purchased the rights to the book back in 2008, and Schnabel was announced to be developing the film with Depp in 2011. In the Hand of Dante is currently filming in Italy, having landed an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA to shoot during the still-ongoing actors’ strike.

Who Are the Stars of ‘In the Hand of Dante’?

jason-momoa-aquaman-2Image via Warner Bros.

In the Hand of Dante boasts a trio of lead actors with impressive filmographies and box office pedigree. The versatile Oscar Isaac has made his name in both arthouse fare, like Ex Machina and Inside Llewyn Davis, and blockbusters like the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

This past summer, he was heard as the voice of Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and will return for its sequel.

Breaking out with his role as the warlord Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones, Jason Momoa has gone on to star in the Apple TV drama See and the DC Extended Universe films as Aquaman.

He stole the show as the villainous Dante Reyes in this summer’s Fast X, and can next be seen in the long-gestating Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which will hit theaters this holiday season.

Gerard Butler has carved himself a niche as “the last great B-movie action hero”, with roles in the “dad movie” classics 300Den of Thieves, and the Olympus Has Fallen series. He is next slated to appear in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and the Renny Harlin-helmed The Bricklayer.

In the Hand of Dante will be produced by Jon KilikFrancesco Melzi d’eril for MeMo Films, and Olmo Schnabel for TWIN Productions. Martin Scorsese will executive produce with DreamCrew, Screen Capital / Screen One, and Tribune Pictures, with Isaac (for his production company Mad Gene Media) and Schnabel.