Relativity Media announced today that it has acquired U.S. rights to market and distribute Intrepid Pictures’ The Raven, directed by James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) and starring John Cusack (2012, 1408).

The film also stars Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans), Alice Eve (Sex and the City 2), Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter Series) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster). The script was written by Ben Livingston (Bruce Almighty) and Hannah Shakespeare (Loverboy).

The Raven is a fictionalized account of the final days of gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe as he tracks a serial killer whose crimes mirror works by the famous author.

Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans are producing for Intrepid, alongside Aaron Ryder for FilmNation, who brought the project to Intrepid. Galavis Films’ Jesus Martinez is executive producing. FilmNation is selling international distribution rights to the film. Principal photography on The Raven began in November in Hungary, with a move to Serbia in December. Production wrapped in January.

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Today, January 19th, makes the 202nd anniversary of American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe’s birth; and actor John Cusack took a little time out of his busy schedule filming James McTeigue’s The Raven to tweet some birthday greetings.

Below you’ll find a portrait of Poe along with a behind-the-scenes shot from the set of The Raven. Cusack’s tweets (typos included!) are below each photo.

Also starring Ewan McGregor, Luke Evans, and Alice Eve, The Raven is set in the last days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life, when he gets wrapped up in a serial killer investigation. Evans will play a detective who partners with Poe (Cusack) to search for a serial killer who has kidnapped the author’s fiancee (Eve) and has gone on a murder spree that mimics the author’s work.

“We are planning for a lot of gore,” McTeigue told Dread Central in an earlier interview. “With Poe, I would be remiss in not including some gory stuff, especially within the context of his work. There are so many incredible macabre and paranoid elements in what Poe accomplished as a writer so I want to bring those to the big screen. I want to put audiences in 1850s Baltimore, but the twist is that I want it to come from the way I imagined Poe saw the world, not necessarily what was really happening at that time, and give it a bit of a pop twist on top of that.”

“The Raven will look at a serial killer that uses Poe’s work as inspiration so there will be fictionalized elements to the film. I would still like to stay true to the character he was, but I also don’t want to make a Poe biopic either. So there will be some dark themes running throughout the movie that may just touch on some of what we know about Poe’s life,” McTeigue added.

View the photo and original source here.

Luke Evans and Alice Eve are in negotiations to star opposite John Cusack in The Raven, the Edgar Allan Poe-centered period thriller being directed by James McTeigue.

Evans steps into the shoes vacated by Jeremy Renner, who was slated to star in the picture but in late August segued instead to Mission: Impossible IV.

Evans will play a detective who partners with Poe (Cusack) to search for a serial killer who has kidnapped the author’s fiancee (Eve) and gone on a murder spree that mimics the author’s work. The project begins shooting in late October, with Budapest and Serbia standing in for 1849 Baltimore.

Eve, who turned heads in She’s Out of My League, recently wrapped the British comedy The Decoy Bride and is shooting the thriller ATM.

Source: Reuters