In the Hand of Dante

Deadline magazine summarizes the premise of the film stating: "(Oscar) Isaac plays Dante in sequences shot in color in Italy that explore his efforts in writing the classic and looking for mystical knowledge. He also plays author Nick Tosches, whose 2002 book In the Hand of Dante makes him out to be a renowned Dante expert employed by a mafia don to confirm its existence and then steal it for him. Those sequences, quite violent in parts, are shot in black-and-white to show contrast between the more artistic world of the 1400s vs. today’s brutal and greedy landscape where art is just a commodity for some. He’s accompanied by ace assassin, Louie (Gerard Butler), and another goon, Lefty (Louis Cancelmi). The don, Joe Black (John Malkovich), sends them off to the Vatican, where supposedly the original manuscript actually could be verified and brought back to him."