Julian Schnabel is returning to the Venice Film Festival with “In the Hand of Dante,” which will screen out of competition in its full, uncut form. The 150-minute epic, starring Oscar Isaac, will have its world premiere on the Lido, and we now have a first-look image (see above).
According to Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera, the road to the premiere was anything but smooth. The film, which Schnabel has been trying to make for more than a decade, faced pressure from financiers to trim down its considerable runtime.
“Most movies [at the festival] last from 2 hours and 15 minutes up to 2 hrs and 30 minutes,” Barbera said. “This is the new international standard, which is quite concerning for those who have to program the movies because packing all of them in our agenda is quite a problem.” Ultimately, Schnabel won the battle, for now, as the film will premiere on the Lido as he intended — uncut.
I believe [Schnabel] signed a contract saying he’d deliver a movie that was two hours long and in color but in the end it was two and half hours and partly in black and white. So they spent at least a year in back-and-forth over the final version. Schnabel fought for his version and that’s the one that’ll be shown in Venice. I believe they reached an agreement.
Shot in Rome, “In the Hand of Dante” is based on Nick Tosches’s genre-blurring, time-hopping novel that weaves together two narratives: one set in the 14th century involving Dante Alighieri, and the other in the modern day, following a rogue-ish scholar, defying the mafia, who gets entangled in a dangerous manuscript deal.
The film boasts one of the most eclectic and star-studded casts of the year, including Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, John Malkovich, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, and, in what might be a cameo or something more, Martin Scorsese.
Schnabel, best known for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “Before Night Falls,” hasn’t directed a film since 2018’s Vincent van Gogh portrait “At Eternity’s Gate.” That film also premiered at Venice, earning Willem Dafoe a Best Actor prize and an Oscar nomination.
It’s somewhat concerning that “In the Hand of Dante” isn’t in competition, but Schnabel seems poised to make another bold mark — this time with an operatic, time-bending tale that may test the patience of some viewers, but will, hopefully, provoke conversation.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.