Martin Scorsese is on his way to the big screen, not as a director nor as himself, but as an actor in the upcoming mystery In the Hands of Dante, Variety exclusively reported.

The director, who will be honored at the Berlin Film Festival with an Honorary Golden Bear on Tuesday, plays an elderly wise man who influences the writer Dante Alighieri as he writes The Divine Comedy. Julian Schnabel directs.

Scorsese: actor and director

Scorsese, who has been nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director for Killers of the Flower Moon (also nominated for Best Picture), has done cameos in his own movies and has also appeared in other directors' films — most notably as Vincent van Gogh in Akira Kurosawa's 1990 movie Dreams as well as voicing the loan shark pufferfish Sykes in Shark Tale. However, this might be his meatiest role yet.

Schnabel told Variety, “He is extraordinary in the film.” The filmmaker also said that Scorsese plays “a brilliant, important role.”

“You can't take your eyes off him,” the director added.

People who have seen footage of the film which Schnabel is editing in New York have said they have been impressed with Scorsese's intense performance.

In the Hand of Dante stars Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Gerard Butler and Al Pacino. The movie is based on Nick Tosches' 2022 novel of the same name. The story centers on a handwritten manuscript of the poem The Divine Comedy found in the Vatican library.

The poem then journeys from a priest to a New York City mobster. It then ends up in Tosches' hands when he is asked to authenticate the poem. Tosches then sets out on his own voyage, mimicking that of Dante's.

The narrative switches between the 14th and 21st centuries, and some of the characters living parallel lives in various eras. In one, the story follows Dante as he is writing The Divine Comedy and the circumstances that influenced him.

Schnabel described Scorsese's unnamed character as “somebody who knows things. The Italian power Guido Cavalcanti, who was Dante's friend, sends him to Venice to see the the iconic director's character to seek advice on his journey as is written in The Divine Comedy.

“It's sort of before the poem is finished. So this guy has been an influence on Fante, and he's probably the only one whose review he cared about,” Schnabel said, still speaking about Scorsese's character. This sage is someone Dante sees “a few times over a period of 20 years, but sort of compressed into a few visits.”

British musician and actor Benjamin Clementine plays a demonic character who crosses both the past and the present. He also contributed to the film's score.

Joining the cast are John Malkovich and Louis Cancelmi. Cancelmi plays two roles in the film: present-day hitman Lefty and Dante's benefactor, the nobleman Guido da Polenta.

In the Hand of Dante may yet premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The movie was mostly shot in Italy: Sicily, Venice, Verona, Rome and Viterbo. Scorsese also serves as one of the executive producers. Schnabel co-wrote the film with his wife and creative collaborator Louise Kugelberg.