After making the most ridiculous movie possible with Ninja Assassin, V for Vendetta director James McTeigue is returning to more semi-serious material with The Raven. Following the last days of Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack), this could be a fun murder mystery. Right now, the gorgeously bleak cinematography from Danny Ruhlmann is the selling point for me. I’m also looking forward to Alice Eve as the female lead, who hasn’t done much since the underrated She’s Out of My League. Check out the trailer below via Apple for the film also starring Luke Evans, Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen.
Synopsis:
In this gritty thriller, Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack, Being John Malkovich) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans, Immortals) to hunt down a mad serial killer who’s using Poe’s own works as the basis in a string of brutal murders. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin), the film also stars Alice Eve (Sex and the City 2), Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster). When a mother and daughter are found brutally murdered in 19th century Baltimore, Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) makes a startling discovery: the crime resembles a fictional murder described in gory detail in the local newspaper–part of a collection of stories penned by struggling writer and social pariah Edgar Allan Poe. But even as Poe is questioned by police, another grisly murder occurs, also inspired by a popular Poe story. Realizing a serial killer is on the loose using Poe’s writings as the backdrop for his bloody rampage, Fields enlists the author’s help in stopping the attacks. But when it appears someone close to Poe may become the murderer’s next victim, the stakes become even higher and the inventor of the detective story calls on his own powers of deduction to try to solve the case before it’s too late.
The Raven hits theaters March 9th, 2012.