The Raven, starring John Cusack, has been filming for a while now, and as you can see above, the first official image has been released (via The Huffington Post). It does seem to be taking things a little bit too literally though, with Poe holding a Raven.
The film, named after Edgar Allen Poe’s famous and eerie poem, is a ficionalised version of the last days of Poe’s life, when he gets wrapped up in a serial killer investigation, where the murders are inspired by Poe’s stories. The writer’s demise has indeed been surrounded in mystery. He was found delirious and in great distress on the streets on Baltimore on October 3rd 1849 (wearing someone else’s closthes!), got taken to hospital and died a few days later.
Conflicting reports and the fact he was never coherent enough to say what happened to him have led people to believe he died of everything from influenza or rabies, to it being suicide or murder. It’s been a topic of much speculation, particularly as there’s no reliable evidence for what happened to him in the week after he left Richmond, Virginia and when he was found on the streets of Baltimore, especially as he was supposed to just be returning home to New York. The Raven is hoping to fill in those gaps with it own fictionalised take on events.
The Raven, directed by james McTeigue (V For Vendetta) should be in cinemas next year.