As you may remember, James McTeigue is looking to fill in the gaps in the story of Edgar Allen Poe’s last days on earth with The Raven, a tale of detectives and murder that would explain his mysterious death. John Cusack is set to play the grim poet with the kidnapped fiance, while Jeremy Renner had been cast as the detective that accompanies him into the case of the Poe-inspired serial murders. It seem Mission: Impossible has shut Renner out from the project and instead recent fantasy staple Luke Evans will be playing the part opposite Cusack. Evans has roles in Clash of the Titans and Robin Hood, and will be seen as a Greek god and a Musketeer next year, so McTeigue’s alternative-world tale may actually be a step down from many of the film’s he’s been involved with so far, in terms of aggressive fantasy settings. That said, McTeigue has made it clear that this will be set in the world as Poe sees it and will have little to no fidelity to historical accuracy, so The Raven may end up fitting right into his filmography.

Alice Eve has also signed on, and she will play the aforementioned “kidnapped fiance.” Eve recently led the film She’s Out Of My League, and showed up in the Sex and The City fuckedquel.  

It’s not often a film concludes with its main hero incoherently drifting through the streets in another person’s clothes, murmuring the name “Reynolds” for unknown reasons, and being taken to the hospital to die before you regain enough senses to explain yourself. This death would then be followed by the destruction of the hero’s name by the malicious pen of a literary editor. I’d say it is all quite antithetic to a franchise if we weren’t so damn prequel happy. This patchy knowledge of Poe’s end is ripe for McTeigue to tell an imaginative, tragic story that will hopefully see the man breaking out of the Wachowski mold and finding his own voice. My instinct (read: my ass) tells me the tone will land somewhere between V for Vendetta and Sherlock Holmes, but we could be in for something much darker than either. The film starts rolling next month, so it won’t be too long before we get an idea.

Source | THR