Johnny Depp acquires Hand of Dante as possible star vehicle

Published at 11:43 AM on December 10, 2008

By Loren Lankford

photo courtesy of Getty Images

Johnny Depp is not lacking in the upcoming projects department. In the last few months he has secured another Pirates sequel, an animated flick with Gore Verbinski, an Alice in Wonderland adaptation with favored partner Tim Burton and rumored roles in Sin City 3, The Lone Ranger remake and Dark Shadows. On top of his acting gigs, Depp is currently looking for a director for Rex Mundi, a Dark Horse comic he bought the rights to back in 2006.

Now comes word from Variety that Depp's production company Infinitum Nihil (which has many projects on the table) has bought the screen rights to Nick Tosches' 2002 novel In the Hand of Dante. Depp will produce and possibly star in the film, which has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. and GK Films.

Variety says that the book "revolves around Dante's masterwork The Divine Comedy and tells parallel storylines involving Dante in 14th-century Italy as he tries to complete the work, and a contemporary storyline involving Tosches, who is asked to authenticate what might be Dante's original manuscript." If Depp was to star in the film, it is likely that he would play Tosches.

Depp has three films, The Rum Diary, Public Enemies and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (where he is one of the actors filling in the Tony role for Heath Ledger), scheduled for release in 2009.