“There’s No Need to Boycott Artists”

The ongoing conflict in Gaza has reached the Venice Film Festival this year in various ways, from protests to Wednesday night’s world premiere of The Voice of Hind Rajab. It also came up on Wednesday during this afternoon’s press conference for The Hand of Dante when veteran artist and auteur Julian Schnabel declined to address the war directly while dismissing calls that his actors should face a boycott here or anywhere.

“There’s no reason to boycott artists,” Schnabel said flatly. “I selected those actors for their merits as actors and they did an extraordinary job in the film. That’s about it. As far as [the conflict in Gaza], I think we should talk about the movie, rather than this issue.”

Schnabel’s comments come on the heels of a pro-Palestinian group requesting that invitations for Israeli star Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler be rescinded from the festival. Prior to Gadot’s career as an actress, she completed compulsory service in the Israel Defense Forces under the country’s military service laws. In recent months, however, she has denounced the Gaza war. Her rep told Deadline that Gadot “was never able nor was ever confirmed to attend the Venice Film Festival.” Butler found his name in the mix due to his attendance of a gala for the Friends of the IDF Western Region Gala in Los Angeles in 2018, though he’s not made any statements since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

In the Hand of Dante, an out-of-competition selection, features an all-star cast including Gadot, Butler, Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, Louis Cancelmi, Franco Nero, Sabrina Impacciatore and Benjamin Clementine. The crime drama follows a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which makes its way from the Vatican library to a mob boss in New York, who turns to writer and Dante expert Nick Tosches to verify its authenticity.

Schnabel and Louise Kugelberg adapted the film from Tosches’ novel. Issac plays dual roles of Tosches and Dante. Produced by DreamCrew Entertainment, MeMo Films, TWIN Productions and Artofficial Productions, In the Hand of Dante is being sold internationally by WME Independent. Schnabel with Kugelberg previously teamed on 2018’s At Eternity’s Gate starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh opposite Isaac, Rupert Friend and Mads Mikkelsen. Dafoe won a best actor prize in Venice for the film.

At the top of the press conference, Schnabel said he first became aware of the novel about 15 years ago thanks to his good friend Johnny Depp. “I made a movie called Before Night Falls, and Johnny Depp was in the movie. We’ve been friends for as long as I can remember. He had these books and said, ‘Well, let’s make a movie, and why don’t you pick one of these five books?’” Schnabel recalled during the Q&A session. “I picked the book that was the most impossible book, and then we started to work on that.”

Life took over, he continued, and “things changed a bit” between Tosches and Depp so Schnabel then proceeded to tackle it solo, eventually bringing Isaac into the fold. “Oscar read this thing and said, ‘If you’re going to do this, I’m your man.’ He’s known about it for awhile, and here we are. And he is my man.” To that, Isaac confirmed: “I’m your man.”

Reuniting with Schnabel proved to be too good to pass up, Isaac added, saying that “the impossibility” of such a film is another reason he was drawn to the material and the dual roles. “To read it and have no idea how one would realize it, that’s what’s so exciting about it,” stated the actor, who has already had a high-profile Venice Film Festival after the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. “[Julian’s] a visionary and he’s unlike any other artist that’s working today or has ever worked.”

The press conference took place on a busy day for Schnabel and the Dante team. The artist and filmmaker, whose works include The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls and Basquiat, will be honored with a Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award — an annual prize that recognizes a personality who has made “an especially original contribution to contemporary cinema” — during the film’s world premiere inside Sala Grande.

Though he’s a New York-born and Texas-bred artist, Schnabel is very much a local hero. He’s exhibited at the Venice Biennale Art Exhibition five times (1980, 1982, 1993, 1997 and 2003) and premiered his directorial debut Basquiat here in 1996. His follow-up, Before Night Falls, starring Javier Bardem as Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas, won Venice’s grand jury prize.

The 2025 Venice film festival runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6.