John Cusack has tweeted that he has joined James McTeigue’s gestating “The Raven” saying, “officiali-will play Edgar Allan Poe in fall-a-film called The Raven, send any Poe- gold – my way as i begin this journey into the abyss.”
The project which has been in development since last year originally had Jeremy Renner and Ewan McGregor attached though both have likely moved on from the project. The film will be a fictional account of Edgar Allan Poe’s final five days as he joins a hunt for a serial killer inspired by his stories. “It’s like the poem, ‘The Raven,’ itself, crossed with ‘Se7en,'” the director said last year. “It should be pretty cool. The script is really good and everyone responds to it really well. I’m in the middle of casting.”
With production to begin this fall, we can probably expect more casting news and details to arrive soon. This will be the first film for McTeigue not produced by his mentors the Wachowskis (not counting “The Invasion” which he came in late in the game to try and save). We haven’t been a fan of his work but it is interesting material and we’re curious to see how this will turn out. [MovieWeb]