Director Fede Alvarez generated predominantly positive feedback with this year’s brutal revamp of the Evil Dead franchise after he was hand-picked by none other than Sam Raimi based on his impressive 2009 short, Panic Attack! (See below) Further to plans to direct and co-write an original sci-fi actioner, Machina, and with yet-to-be-confirmed rumours of his involvement in an upcoming Marvel movie, the Uruguayan director is now in talks to bring the 2010 game, Dante’s Inferno to the big screen in a live-action adaptation.
The game in question borrows from Dante’s classic poem with gamers climbing into Dante Aligheri’s suit of armor to travel through the nine rings of Hell to rescue his beloved Beatrice from Lucifer’s clutches. Universal will distribute the film, having owned the rights since 2008, well before the game was even officially announced. Whilst the first draft for the film was penned by Band of Brothers scribe, Bruce McKenna the most recent version comes from the pen of Jay Basu (Fast Girls).
It’s obviously good news to hear of new projects with Alvarez’ name attached but it does beg the question “What does this mean for the future of the rebooted Evil Dead franchise?
The director certainly has openly commented on his desire to work on a sequel but, with him signing on for Dante’s Inferno, and the plethora of other job rumours, it’s anyone’s guess as to if he will stay on for the next entry of in the horror franchise and, if he does, how long it will take to come to fruition.
Whilst Dante’s Inferno failed to make much of a mark on the gaming community the adaptation could at least quench the thirst of moviegoers who had their hopes up for the rumoured God of War movie which was being adapted by Saw scribes Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton but which fizzled into nothingness.
Are you excited for Dante to hit the big screen? A release date has yet to be announced, but we’ll keep you updated as soon as any further news is revealed.
We’ll leave you with a trailer for the Dante’s Inferno game followed by the aforementioned Alvarez short Panic Attack!
