Johnny Depp acquires rights to ‘Hand of Dante’
Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil has bought the screen rights to the Nick Tosches novel “In the Hand of Dante.” The novel will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Depp.
First published back in 2002, 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. Depp would play Tosches.
Depp, who is playing the Mad Hatter in the Tim Burton-directed “Alice in Wonderland,” has a dance card that includes toplining another “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, “The Lone Ranger,” and voicing the title character in the Gore Verbinski-directed animated film “Rango.”