Action Kings Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, And Gerard Butler To Lead The Coolest-Sounding Crime Movie Of The Year

Gird your loins, action fans, because this next bit of news might just be the wildest production of the year. /Film has never been shy about our love for B-movie king Gerard Butler, a star who has carved a bloody path through movies like "300," the increasingly ridiculous "Has Fallen" franchise, and the brilliantly-titled "Plane" earlier this year. Now, imagine him joining forces with "Dune" alums Jason Momoa (who, between "Aquaman" and especially "Fast X," has fully come into his own as the surfer-bro epitome of "Dudes rock" that audiences have been hungry for) and Oscar freaking Isaac in what's being billed as a crime/thriller that takes its cues from one of the greatest epic poems ever conceived by humankind. While words can't fully convey the scope of this trio's next big project, we feel like that gets pretty close to setting the table here.

Deadline has the news about "In the Hand of Dante," the upcoming movie by filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who most recently directed the Willem Dafoe-starring "At Eternity's Gate." Currently in production in Italy (we would never confirm nor deny the existence of set photos that may or may not be floating out there in the internet, only a Google search away), the film has two additional bits of good news under its belt. First, none other than Martin Scorsese himself is currently attached as an executive producer on the film. If the maestro himself sees something worth championing here, then say no more! Secondly, the production managed to secure an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA, allowing it to film even as the actors' strike remains in force.

But that's still only scratching the surface of the story. The real headline-grabbing part of "In the Hand of Dante" comes from its source material, which has some "divine" inspirations.

Okay, no more beating around the bush. "In the Hand of Dante," if it wasn't clear enough from the title, is based on a 2002 novel by the late author Nick Tosches, featuring a central MacGuffin that's none other than — get this — the original manuscript of Dante's "The Divine Comedy." The plot unfolds when the main character, a Dante-obsessed scholar named Nick (yes, incredibly enough, he's apparently meant as a fictionalized version of Tosches himself), is called in to investigate whether this priceless manuscript that has surfaced among black market traders is actually the genuine article. I'll let the official Goodreads synopsis take it away from here, as no amount of paraphrasing will quite do it justice:

Deep inside the Vatican library, a priest discovers the rarest and most valuable art object ever found: the manuscript of "The Divine Comedy," written in Dante's own hand. Via Sicily, the manuscript makes its way from the priest to a mob boss in New York City, where a writer named Nick Tosches is called to authenticate the prize. For this writer, the temptation is too great: he steals the manuscript in a last-chance bid to have it all.

And as if all that weren't incredible enough, the story is split into two distinct timelines: one following the fictional Tosches, and the other centered on Dante himself. This sounds like it has the makings of being everything we wanted from Nick Cave's infamous "Gladiator" sequel script. There are no additional details or a release date, but we'll be keeping a close eye on this one. (We previously covered this long-gestating production over a decade ago.)