Luke Evans has been set to star alongside John Cusack in "The Raven"

Luke Evans has been set to star alongside John Cusack in The Raven, the drama that will be directed by V for Vendetta’s James McTeigue. Production starts later this year in Eastern Europe. Cusack plays Edgar Allan Poe in stylized revisionist take of the last week of the poet's life, written by Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston. Evans will play a detective who teams with the poet to track down a serial killer who’s kidnapped Poe’s fiancée.

Evans is an up and comer who played Apollo in Clash of the Titans, plays Zeus in the upcoming Tarsem-directed The Immortals, and is in production playing Aramis in the Paul WS Anderson-directed 3D The Three Musketeers. Evans also stars in the Stephen Frears-directed Tamara Drewe. The coproduction between Intrepid and FilmNation will be produced by Trevor Macy, Marc D. Evans and Aaron Ryder. CAA will broker a domestic distribution deal shortly, with FilmNation’s Glen Basner selling foreign. The picture shapes up as an under $35 million film meant for wide distribution, which has become a sweet spot for independent distributors.

John Cusack blurted out on Twitter that he'll play Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven. Since I can't clear my throat in less than 140 characters, I'll spend the extra verbiage describing the film. Based on an original script by Hannah Shakespeare (I kid you not) and Ben Livingston, the drama is set in the last five days of Poe's life, when a serial killer is running around Baltimore using Poe's stories as the backdrops for his killings. Poe and a young detective have a ticking clock to outsmart the killer before he strikes again.