Monster’s Ball scribe signed for Dante’s Inferno

Visceral Games announced that Academy Award-nominated writer Will Rokos is writing the story line for Dante’s Inferno, the adaptation of part one of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy from Visceral Games. Rokos is best known for his Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monster’s Ball in 2001, and is collaborating with the game’s creative team to craft an all new narrative that parallels the original poem. He certainly has his work cut out for him. I wonder if he’ll be writing the screenplay for the film, assuming a previously announced movie deal is still part of the equation.

“Taking such a naturally rich and deep universe and adapting for the video game has been one of the most interesting and challenging projects I’ve worked on,” said Will Rokos. “I really got into re-imagining Dante as a flawed hero with a dark past, and his determination to save the love of his life from a terrible fate. It was a truly unique experience to re-create one man’s hell, one circle at a time.”

In Dante’s Inferno, players assume the role of Dante as he fights through nine circles of hell - limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Each circle features distinctive environments, custom creatures and demons, bosses and sub-bosses, unique gameplay scenarios, and specific story elements crafted to tell the sins of Dante’s past.

The video game will be available in North America beginning on February 9, 2010 and in Europe on February 12, 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable

The Divine Comedy as a Video Game

Despite the systemic retail failure of original intellectual properties like Mirror’s Edge, Army of Two and most recently EA Redwood Shores developed Dead Space, EA has not given up on creating new and original game properties. The company announced today that the studio is hard at work on a new and original IP based on the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

The poem weaves a tale of an incredible journey through the afterlife and serves as an allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife and the punishments of hell. The protagonist Dante travels through the nine circles of hell: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. How this masterpiece will be presented as a game is almost as interesting as the source material it is based on, and EA at least deserves some points from trying something that has not been done before. This may also be the game that Paramount won the film rights to in Nov. (read that story for more details).

You can get a first glimpse at what the company has planned to put the fear into a whole new generation by visiting www.dantesinferno.com.