Fede Alvarez to Direct ‘Dante’s Inferno;’ Will Use Way More Fake Blood Than Dante Ever Did

By  · Published on September 18th, 2013

Truly, the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon a classic work of literature is for that work to be re-imagined as a video game where grotesque monsters are hacked apart by a guy with a giant scythe. We’ve given that very honor to Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno,” but now modern culture has gone a step further, and a film adaptation of the “Inferno” is underway. Wherever Alighieri is today (and if I had to guess, I’d say he’s in his burial site in Ravenna, Italy), he must surely be pleased.

And today, Dante’s Inferno: The Game: The Movie has gained a director in Fede Alvarez, the Uruguayan filmmaker who burst onto the scene this spring with the Evil Dead remake, according to Deadline Hollywood. It’s as solid a choice as you can get for a film that will undoubtedly offend anyone who’s ever appreciated the “Inferno” on an artistic level. Evil Dead had ghouls and gore aplenty, and Dante’s Inferno is sure to overflow with the same – but don’t be surprised if the gore gets tamped down for a PG-13 rating. There’s no word yet how this will affect the Evil Dead sequel that Alvarez has also been talking about.

The video game “Inferno” follows the same basic setup as the real deal – Dante journeys through hell, encountering a different sin in each descending circle. In the game (and presumably, the movie), each sin is subtly represented by hordes of monsters that Dante must cut into ribbons with a really big scythe. Maybe if Alighieri had a little more foresight, he could have livened up the original with an action scene or two.