2012 was an odd film in more ways than one. Chief amongst the mysteries is how exactly they persuaded John Cusack to star in a film which was one part hokum, twenty eights parts CG showreel.
Following his trip back to the future in Hot Tub Time Machine he took a part in Mikael Håfström’s Shanghai and now we’ve learned what the next direction his unpredictable career trajectory will take. To Baltimore, to don the moustache of one Edgar Allan Poe in John McTeigue’s The Raven.
A little bird told us (via ComingSoon who have a handy interview with McTeigue about the project here) that Cusack would be journeying into the abyss, the crux of which is a serial killer mystery with the poet helping to solve a series of murders ‘inspired’ by his poems.
The name of Ewan McGregor has been wafting around this one as had M:I 4’s latest recruit Jeremy Renner, who, it was supposed, would play Poe.
When Renner’s name was linked to The Raven I mocked up this picture, which is every bit as scary as the tales told by E.A. Poe.
Excusing the terrible Photoshopping he looked pretty convincing as the man himself. Now that Cusack is attached to the project I had to allow him the same courtesy and thus we get this…
Looking like an inebriated Gene Hackman on a night out dressed as Charlie Chaplin I’m sure he’ll look far better when McTeigue’s camera roll later this year.
