Dante’s Inferno Gets Animated

The animated movie based on the game based on the poem. Literary snobs, you’re probably not going to want to hear about this.

Electronic Arts is teaming up with Starz Media to produce an animated film for its upcoming Dante’s Inferno game. Yes, that’s a movie based on a game based on a poem. The flick, which will be feature-length, will expand on the story of the game, which loosely borrows the structure of the poem as it follows Dante’s travels through the nine circles of hell in search of his beloved Beatrice.

The movie will take an Animatrix-like approach by commissioning multiple studios to provide different takes on the story, presumably with each studio animating a different level of Hell. That could certainly be interesting, and EA is boasting that they’re only hiring talent “with experience creating some of the top anime in the industry to tell this classic story.”

“The animated feature will be a great companion piece to the game,” said Jonathan Knight, Executive Producer of the game. “The feature will explore aspects of the poem that the game does not, and will provide more insight into the characters and the unique story adaptation that the game has established.”

Dante’s Inferno, as was revealed last month, will take a loose interpretation of the poem, with Dante re-imagined as some kind of medieval action hero who battles demons in Hell using quick-time events and air combos. It has been described as “God of War meets Dead Space.”

The film is being produced by Joe Goyette, who previously worked on the Dead Space anime, Dead Space: Downfall, so if you liked that one, you might want to check this out.