Julian Schnabel on Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler Boycott Calls at Venice

Julian Schnabel has responded to calls from Gaza activists for Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler, two of the stars of his new film “In the Hand of Dante,” to be disinvited from Venice Film Festival over their support for Israel.

Just as the Venice Film Festival started, organizers were urged in an open letter signed by hundreds of international filmmakers and artists to take a “clear and unambiguous stand [in] condemning” the ongoing war in Gaza. Some even called to disinvite celebrities who have shown public support for Israel, including Gadot and Butler. Though Venice chief Alberto Barbera confirmed that they were not disinvited, neither actor is present at the fest.

“I think there’s no reason to boycott artists,” Schnabel responded when asked about the matter during “In the Hand of Dante’s” press conference on Wednesday. “I selected those actors for their merits as actors, and they did an extraordinary job in the film and that’s about it. I think we should talk about the movie, rather than this issue.”

“In the Hand of Dante” is based on the eponymous book by Nick Tosches, which revolves around a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy.” After being found in the Vatican library, rhe ancient text makes its way from a priest to a mob boss in New York City, where it is taken by Tosches after he’s asked to verify its authenticity. Then, like Dante, Tosches embarks on his own journey.

Oscar Isaac, who plays both Tosches and Dante and was also on the Lido last week for the “Frankenstein” premiere, was on hand at the press conference and discussed what attracted him to the project. “I think the impossibility of it. I think that’s why we get into these kinds of things, you know. The impossible dream,” Isaac said. “Something about moving toward the more mysterious — to read it and have no idea how one would realize it, I think that’s what’s so exciting.”

During the shooting of the film in locations including Sicily, Venice, Verona, Rome and New York, Isaac said: “I would come home and every night and there was something Talmudic about how I would have Nick Tosches’ book, his poetry, and the ‘Divine Comedy’ in three english translations, and in the original Italian.”

He added, “Depending on what I was shooting the next day, I would derive and divine from these texts to see what would be possible the next day.”

Schnabel also underlined the huge challenge of the project. The film stemmed from Johnny Depp giving him five books when they made “Before Night Falls” together “and I picked the most impossible one,” he noted. Eventually, Depp was no longer involved and Isaac read the script and said: “If you’re going to do this, I’m your man.”

The “In the Hand of Dante” cast also includes Jason Momoa, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore and Franco Nero. Schnabel was also able to cast Martin Scorsese in a small but powerful role as an elderly sage named Isaiah, who influences Dante Alighieri while he is writing “The Divine Comedy.”

“Marty has been extremely supportive of my work as a filmmaker,” said Schnabel. “He really wanted to do this and I thought there wasn’t really anyone else that I wanted to play that part.”

“Hand of Dante” also feature a slew of Italian actors beyond Impacciatore and Nero, including Claudio Santamaria, Guido Caprino, Paolo Bonacelli and Dora Romano, who played the matriarch who eats mozzarella with her hands and spouts vulgarities in Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God.”

“In the Hand of Dante” will premiere at Venice on Wednesday night.