In the Hand of Dante is a 2025 drama film directed by Julian Schnabel, who co-wrote the screenplay with Louise Kugelberg, based on the 2002 novel by Nick Tosches. It follows a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy found in a hidden Vatican cellar, which makes its way to a mob boss in New York City, ending up in the hands of Nick Tosches. It stars Oscar Isaac alongside an ensemble cast that includes Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Benjamin Clementine, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino and Jason Momoa.
The film had its world premiere out of competition in the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2025. It was theatrically released in the United States on June 12, 2026, followed by a streaming release on Netflix on June 24.
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Premise
Deadline magazine summarizes the premise of the film stating: "(Oscar) Isaac plays Dante in sequences shot in color in Italy that explore his efforts in writing the classic and looking for mystical knowledge. He also plays author Nick Tosches, whose 2002 book In the Hand of Dante makes him out to be a renowned Dante expert employed by a mafia don to confirm its existence and then steal it for him. Those sequences, quite violent in parts, are shot in black-and-white to show contrast between the more artistic world of the early 1300s vs. today's brutal and greedy landscape where art is just a commodity for some. He's accompanied by ace assassin, Louie (Gerard Butler), and another goon, Lefty (Louis Cancelmi). The don, Joe Black (John Malkovich), sends them off to the Vatican, where supposedly the original manuscript actually could be verified and brought back to him."
