Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Dante’s Inferno
3/31/09 - Electronic Arts Inc. and Starz Media's Film Roman announced the start of production on an animated movie based on Dante's Inferno.  The feature-length project will expand on the story in EA's new game coming out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010, which in turn is based on part one of Dante Alighieri's epic Italian poem The Divine Comedy.  Just as the poem and game take players on a stunning journey through the nine circles of hell, the Dante's Inferno animated feature will also follow Dante as he travels through limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery in search of his true love, Beatrice.  Joe Goyette is the producer on the project. Victor Cook is directing, and Brandon Auman is writing.

3/18/09 - Dan Harris has been set by Universal Pictures to write Dante's Inferno, a live-action film based on the Electronic Arts video game in which players journey through the depths of hell, Variety reported.  Strike Entertainment's Mark Abraham and Eric Newman are producing with EA Entertainment. EA vice president Patrick O'Brien and game creator Jonathan Knight are also involved in the development of the film.  Universal acquired the title in the fall in a four-studio bidding battle before the EA game even had a formal title.

11/3/08 - Universal Pictures won a bidding battle for an unreleased Electronic Arts video game that sources said will be called Dante's Inferno by the time it hits the marketplace next year, Variety reported.  The agreement is the second the studio has made in recent weeks for an EA game property.  The property shook up a sluggish material marketplace. It was a surprise entry, because EA made past movie deals (including The Sims with Fox and producer John Davis and Mass Effect with producer Avi Arad) after the properties were already popular with gamers. This time around, EA hadn't even announced the existence of the game at the time the concept was brought to the film marketplace. EA declined to comment or confirm the game's title.  Both the Dante's Inferno game and movie involve a journey through the depths of hell.

AlienAlmanac.com 2009