In the Hand of Dante (2026)
In the Hand of Dante is a 2026 drama movie directed by Julian Schnabel and Benjamin Clementine, with a running time of 2h 33m. It stars Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler.
A handwritten manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy surfaces in the Vatican library and begins a dangerous journey into the hands of a New York mob boss. Oscar Isaac plays a version of the late writer Nick Tosches, drawn in to authenticate the relic and tempted to keep it for himself. Julian Schnabel braids that modern crime story with a second thread set in medieval Italy, following Dante through the making of his poem. The ensemble runs deep, with Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, and Al Pacino. Painterly, literary, and unafraid of its own obsessions.
Quick answers
What is In the Hand of Dante about?
A handwritten manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy surfaces in the Vatican library and begins a dangerous journey into the hands of a New York mob boss. Oscar Isaac plays a version of the late writer Nick Tosches, drawn in to authenticate the relic and tempted to keep it for himself. Julian Schnabel braids that modern crime story with a second thread set in medieval Italy, following Dante through the making of his poem. The ensemble runs deep, with Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, and Al Pacino. Painterly, literary, and unafraid of its own obsessions.
When was In the Hand of Dante released?
In the Hand of Dante was released on 12 June 2026.
How long is In the Hand of Dante?
In the Hand of Dante runs 2h 33m.
Who made In the Hand of Dante?
In the Hand of Dante was directed by Julian Schnabel, Benjamin Clementine and Louise Kugelberg.
Where can I watch In the Hand of Dante?
In the Hand of Dante is available on Netflix.
Where to watch In the Hand of Dante
Stream: Netflix
Cast
- Oscar Isaac as Nick Tosches / Dante Alighieri
- Gal Gadot as Giulietta / Gemma Donati
- Gerard Butler as Louie / Pope Bonifacio VIII
- John Malkovich as Joe Black
- Louis Cancelmi as Lefty / Guido Novello da Polenta
- Sabrina Impacciatore as Dr. Susanna Pulice
- Franco Nero as Don Lecco
- Benjamin Clementine as Mephistopheles
- Paolo Bonacelli as Priest of Alcamo
- Martin Scorsese as Isaiah
- Al Pacino as Uncle Carmine
- Jason Momoa as Rosario
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A few thoughts on In the Hand of Dante
Read the source, Nick Tosches's novel In the Hand of Dante, for the profane first-person voice the film adapts. Dante's own Divine Comedy rewards anyone curious about the manuscript at the center of the story. Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose offers a kindred thriller of monks, murder, and a forbidden text everyone is willing to kill for.
Descents into hell and the underworld, level by level
In the Hand of Dante follows its stolen manuscript back to the poem it came from, a nine-circle descent that swallows a modern crime story whole. Dante's Inferno turns that same descent into a level-by-level game, Hades sends its own doomed prince through an endless underworld, Apocalypse Now reframes the trip upriver as its own journey into hell, and Undertale lets players wander a whole civilization living underground.
Mob sagas about blood, loyalty, and generational crime
In the Hand of Dante puts a real mob boss at the center of its manuscript scheme, and the genre's grand sagas sit right behind it. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II chart one family's blood-soaked rise across decades, Mario Puzo's original novel lays down the same code of loyalty and betrayal, and Jackie Brown works the same underworld from its scrappier, street-level edge.
Historical mysteries built around a dangerous secret
In the Hand of Dante treats its recovered manuscript as both temptation and puzzle, caught between authentication and theft. The Name of the Rose sends a monastery's secrets through the same scholarly detective work, A Haunting in Venice digs up its séance-born secret, The Good Liar builds an entire plot on a lie no one sees coming, and Absolute Power hinges on a secret buried inside the halls of power.