Following the release and box office success of the Evil Dead reboot back in 2013, Fede Alavarez was quickly hired by Universal Pictures to helm a video game adapation of Visceral and Electronic Arts' 2010 action-adventure video game, Dante's Inferno. However, the project has made very little in the way of progress beyond that announcement. Since then, Alvares has gone on to direct Don't Breathe for Screen Gems, which opens wide on August 26, 2016. While promoting that film, Alvarez provided the following update on the Dante's Inferno movie.
"I was working on [Dante's Inferno] till the last second until I left for [the start of filming on Don't Breathe]. And we’re still working on it. It’s a big challenge. It’s a huge movie. I think Universal bought the rights for the game, which I’ve never played. I don’t really know much about it. Then when I came onboard, I was like, “We should make a movie about the poem, not about the game. The game is fine, but it’s something better behind it.” And we went back to that and we started developing the script based on that. …a lot of the story, a lot of the script is…just now we’re still trying to find the way to do it for a big audience that it’s not just too big and it becomes impossible. Because, again, for me it’s no doubt; it’s the title. It’s ‘Dante’s Inferno’. Who doesn’t know what that is? But the younger audience may go like, “Dante who?” So that’s the challenge right now, to figure that out."
It would appear that the Dante's Inferno movie will actually adhere more strictly to the original poem than the game. However, with Universal and EA partnering on the film expect the visuals, at the very least, to take inspiration from the game. While the story was solid, most gamers praised Dante's Inferno for its level designs, horrendous enemies and art direction.
While Dante's Inferno is still without a release date, perhaps Alvarez will be refocusing his efforts on the project now that Don't Breathe is set to hit theaters this week? Perhaps not, as Alvarez has also signed up to co-write and direct an adaptation of
Monsterpocalypse for Warner Bros.