John Cusack: He's So 'Raven'

John Cusack confirmed via Twitter that he will play Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven, which chronicles the mysterious last days of the poet and author's life. This is not the Sylvester Stallone Poe bio-pic, but rather one written by Ben Livington and Hannah Shakespeare, as if she could have grown up to do anything else for a living. Unfortunately, this won't shed any light on Poe's last days (more on that later), because this is essentially fan fiction. Deadline Hollywood says a serial killer in Baltimore is using Poe's stories as ways to frame his murders. Poe teams up with a young detective to track down the killer before it's too late. The film is set in the final week of Poe's life, so Cusack will probably get to ladle on the crazy just a bit. James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) will direct the period piece, and it's not set up at a studio just yet, though with the way Sherlock Holmes took off, don't be surprised if this is plucked by a major pretty soon. The concept works, minus the absence of history, and Cusack, in the right vehicle, can still draw, although he was never a huge box office player to begin with. But The Cuse does have that brooding dark side going on, although Poe was nowhere near 6'4" tall. Of course, he was probably nowhere near chasing down a serial killer in his last days, either. America's first great mystery writer was himself the subject of one in October 1949. Poe was traveling from Virginia to New York, when he showed up in Baltimore (his home town), staggering through the streets and apparently wearing someone else's clothes. He was taken to a hospital, where he mumbled something about Richmond a few times, and died a few days later. There are no existing medical records of Poe's death, and it's been linked to all sorts of things, from rabies to alcohol poisoning to suicide. Nobody knows. Nobody will ever know. It probably wasn't alcohol - Poe was hospitalized for four days before he croaked - and beyond that, it's hard to say. He was only 40 when he died. You have to think that somehow or other that plays into the movie, kind of an Amadeus-type crescendo at the end of the film, where the sleuthin' wraps up as Poe dies in the hospital. Perhaps I've said too much...

Comments

[J.Bradley]

Sounds good. Might make up for the fact that they never did Caleb Carr's "The Alienist". Then maybe if it does well, they will.