All that we’ve seen so far from James McTeigue’s upcoming thriller, The Raven, has been very promising, most recently with the new trailer at the end of last year. Directed by McTeigue, whose credits include the brilliant V For Vendetta, the cast is led by John Cusack in the lead role of renowned poet Edgar Allen Poe, with a supporting cast that includes Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and co-written by Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston.
The first teaser posters that surfaced last year were both absolutely stunning, and this new poster, courtesy of EW via FirstShowing, features Cusack front and centre and departs a little from the earlier artwork, but is just as excellent.
“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.”
Originally scheduled for a 9th March release in the US, Relativity have since pushed it back to 27th April, which some have suggested indicates a lack of faith in the film, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. If you take a look at the other releases that weekend in the States, you’ll see that Disney’s blockbuster John Carter is coming out, and putting The Raven up against a film like that wouldn’t really be sensible. The audiences might not be quite the same, but the more niche market for The Raven will probably be torn between the two, and a film like John Carter probably has the bigger appeal, if only because it’s full of 3D special effects.
Pushing it back to 27th April should make for a more stable opening, without the same level of competition. That weekend sees the release of The Five-Year Engagement and Safe, which should be less competition for The Raven to find its feet.
The UK release date was originally scheduled for 9th March too, and there’s no word yet on whether or not it will keep that slot and open before it does in America or get pushed back too. John Carter is opening here on 9th March as well, so if that is the reasoning for the move, then it’s quite possible that we’ll have to wait until April to see it here too. Importantly, however, we’re getting The Avengers on 27th April (whereas the States get it a week later), so it could well be that we’ll have it here on a different weekend to the US; hopefully we’ll get it earlier rather than later, because this looks like something to look forward to. Without further ado, here’s the new poster for your viewing pleasure.
