Cool News
John Cusack To Play Poe In THE RAVEN!!
Merrick here...
John Cusack's Twitter feed (HERE) indicates he'll soon play Edgar Allen Poe in THE RAVEN.
officiali- will play edgar allen poe in fall-a-film called the raven, send any poe- gold - my way as i begin this journey into the abyss
While Cusack does not explicity state that he's appearing in a revisionist Poe tale from director James McTeigue (V FOR BENDETTA, NINJA ASSASSIN), we've known said project has been ramping up for a while now - so it's a reasonably safe extrapolation.
Late last year, McTeigue explained his RAVEN thusly to ComingSoon:
"There's basically a serial killer loose in 1850's Baltimore and he's using Poe's stories as his methodology, so then he leaves clues at each murder and says it's up to Poe to find him before he kills (again)."
[EDIT]
'This is my version of 1850's Baltimore,' because the Poe film is a fictionalized account, his last five days. It's not real."
--- Follow Merrick on Twitter! ---
Readers Talkback
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Might be cool.
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"This seems like a good spot for a hyphen. Oh! there too! Hell, let's throw in a few more."
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fail
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Wasn't Downey Jr. supposed to play Poe in a biopic directed by Stallone? Cusack is a good fit too
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when it was called "From Hell"
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he's already in character
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I was sick of his smug, self-important ass years ago. He got lucky with a role or two but big effing deal John Cusack gimme a break.
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I was pretty loose when I watched it last night, but was there something wrong with John Cusack's skin? Dude looked disgusting, like sick, but with a bad spray-on tan up to the margins on his face. It was bugging me out, man.
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Yeah man, Cusack definitely had some type of skin disease in that movie. My wife didn't really notice it too much, but it was driving me insane!
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Cusack's mention of a journey into "the abyss" is a reference to the short story THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM. He's been doing some research I think. How does this affect Stallone's movie?
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Geez, use your spell check.
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Soon, our future kids will believe Hitler was killed by Jewish soldiers in a movie theater, Edgar Allen Poe was a serial-killer stalking detective, Sherlock Holmes fought Dracula, and ninjas killed Native Americans, not smallpox.
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Is he EVER going to do that?
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Has a great Poe-as-detective series that features prominent sidekicks from history, including Davy Crockett, P.T. Barnum, Louisa May Alcott, and Kit Carson. Fun series, but Schechter seems to have tired of them 'cause nothing new there since 2006. His website says that he's working on a new one ("The Purloined Heart") but it's said that for years.
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kinda like the Vincent Price Phibes movies, and Theatre Of Blood, where he killed the critics by Shakesperean means. Always loved the scene in Phibes when they have to "unscrew" the corpse.
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= dumb movie
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I thought that he was going to use either Downey, Jr. or the overrated Johnny Depp. Oh well. If you look at early pictures of Poe, he sort of resembles a SNL-era Bill Murray.
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Of course the only reason why this movie is happening is because of the success of Guy Ritchie's/ Robert Downey Jr.'s version of Sherlock Holmes. Christ this is Sherlock Holmes, all you have to do is substitute Holmes for Poe.
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Aliens did. Don't you know anything? ;-)
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"serial killer loose in 1850's Baltimore and he's using Poe's stories as his methodology"...ugggh.
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This sounds like complete garbage. Let Stallone do a straight-faced version of the real Poe, if it's even possible to have a straight face in Hollywood anymore. Garbage, just garbage.
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Nevermore, that's a good book, man. Will have to check out the others.
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Thats the movie about a dystopian future, where the mysterious V dons a triangular kerchief on his head to fight against facist England...no, wait, that one was V for bandana.
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Yep. Nevermore was definitely good. That's what got me to read the rest of 'em. I tore through 'em in about a week.
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He is in nothing but crap lately. 2012? Hot tub time machine was mildly amusing. The last great movie he was in was High Fidelity. Like Nicolas Cage, he used to be an interesting character actor, now??
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Didn't time travelers from the future kill the dinosaurs. I don't know; it's so confusing. ;-)<p>Who's up for a time traveling vampire Indian riding dinosaurs in the past to fight invading aliens? Yeah, boy!
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Weird
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Thought it was effin' atrocious. 2012 made me laugh harder that HTTM. Okay, maybe not atrocious. But you gotta put the stress on the MILDLY amusing
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Because a future time-traveller warned the aliens about how upcoming human creatures would soon destroy the planet. And Aliens liked the dinosaurs too much to allow that to happen, so they just sucked them all up with their vacuum cleaner spaceships.
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Is a robot turkey.
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as his Tupac investigation movie...nowhere. But the studios would never touch a serious Poe story. He'd have to fight a satanic cult or something so the young 'uns would watch, ala Sherlock Holmes.
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...way he talks. There's something very contemporary about his speech patterns. I'm having a hard time imagining how he would sound in a period piece.
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I knew I should've watched more history movies!
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Cusack gotta eat!
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Are you guys freaking nuts? Expendables is arguably the most brain-dead movie of the summer and this has been a really stupid summer of movies.
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on Poe since his Rocky days in the seventies. Its a project he has dearly wanted to do. Maybe he's taken one to many stunt punch to the head, but he used to be a pretty decent writer. I know, you wouldn't know it from The Expendables.
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Downey is trained by Si-Fu Eric Oram. Cusack would need a few years to get nto shape. So I imagine they will play Poe like the sickly drunk he was.
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I guess the AICN writers don't get edit buttons either.
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Aug. 27, 2010, 5:44 p.m. CST
Fred Ward already did a Hp Lovecraft as a detective
by BEYONDTHUNDERDOME2GIRLS1CUPBILLCOSBY
movie, it was called Cast a Deadly Spell.
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But this is a rather strange choice.
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Good God Really? I would protest an audio book of the Raven read in that branded bumbling, skeptical, sour-faced Cusack voice. The thought of him in a period piece alone makes me cringe.
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Can't wait for the HP Lovecraft biopic where he battles aliens and demons! And the Mary Shelley biopic where she battles the undead!
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No way, Ray Lewis would kill him first day of practice, literally!
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Pat Morita *playing* ninjas killed Native Americans.
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He wasn't officially cast, but last I heard when Sherlock Holmes came out, exec's were sniffing around for a lead role in the Poe biopic and he was the one they were going after.
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I think Poe died in 1849 so this will be extremely fictional to the extreme extreme.
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....and I believe he'll make even better action movies than "The Expendables," which sadly wasn't as good an effort as the recent "Rambo." I can't see him doing a movie about Poe, not even if he's just directing it. As for Cusack, he's irrelevant now. He's gotten really ugly lately, like he has a disease or something, and he does crap movies.
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But then agian, I could be wrong.
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weird like suddenly buff up and do an action film. Strange, I know.
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killed 'em all. no, seriously
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.......but I never saw what was so special about him. He's an okay actor, but he also seems mediocre.
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I love John Cusack and I love Edgar Allan Poe, but I don't know about this casting. Cusack is good in contemporary pieces, but I don't buy him playing anyone who was alive before he was born. Eight years ago he played in a movie called Max where he was a Jewish art dealer who mentored a younger Adolf Hitler. Noah Taylor was great in it as Hitler, but Cusack sounded and acted exactly like Lloyd Dobler (Say Anything) or Rob Gordon (High Fidelity). I didn't buy him as Jewish or even someone from the 1920's or 30's. I wonder about how he'll sound as a character living in the early 1800's.
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And a soundtrack worth getting. Plays a professional hitman going back to his high school reunion where coincidently his latest assignment is (Its hollywood, roll with it). Joan is in it and is great as his secretary. Scene where Queen/Bowies "Under Pressure" played is perfect.
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Aug. 27, 2010, 11:45 p.m. CST
Wouldn't Downey just be playing Holmes again
by Guy Who Got A Headache And Accidentally Saves The World
Basically
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Just sayin'.
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He looks nothing like Poe. He's about a foot taller than Poe was, I believe.
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Aug. 28, 2010, 1:17 a.m. CST
Cusack will be good in anything. Who else? Efron from our genera
by CodeName
I think not.
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wat up wit Inception 2
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He likes to play writers because he likes to pretend (believe) he's more intelligent than he really is.
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Let me guess - There's a serial killer loose in 1990's Baltimore and he's using Tupac's lyrics as his methodology, so then he leaves clues at each murder and says it's up to Tupac to find him before he kills (again).
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Have you seen Chaplin? Or The Guide To Recognizing Your Saints? Or The Singing Detective? Or Zodiac? Or Tropic Thunder? Or The Soloist? Fuck, man, see a movie once in a while that ain't the "hot new thing."
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still one of my favorite movies. Great soundtrack as well.<br><br>Cusack hasn't done crap lately, but his earlier work still stands.
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That's a terrible name for a sequel...
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He was a teen "everyman" ... its kind of what Michael Cera's manager is obviously trying to turn him into. The difference is that Cusack a) could act and b) played very strong roles that were empowered, independent people who might have been socially displaced, but weren't actual losers. Michael Cera, for whatever reason is always playing the same character he played on Arrested Development. Quiet, spineless, and just kinda there... standing around. <BR><BR> Required viewing Cusack is "Say Anything", "Grosse Pointe Blank", "Better Off Dead", and "High Fidelity"
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Jamies Foxx has signed on!
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"Is like saying "Verne Troyer at his tallest". So said a friend and co-worker to me when I was describing a favorite Cusack film. I don't agree with the sentiment, because I like Cusack, but you have to admit it's a clever turn of phrase.
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free source high school textbook crap... with a twist! poe catching a fan serial killer? jesus... how will cusack get his clash t-shirts and kickboxing into that? wake me up if some kickass girl signs on to be his virginia. but y'know... the whole thing would be better with tim burton directing, johnny depp as poe, and helena bonham carter as virginia... but then... didn't that kinda already happen as sweeney todd and work better? Next up lets roll out the aged jeremy irons to play the ever-youthful peter pan in a fucking riverdance slasher where wendy has grown up to be a serial killer and stalks male dancers. Then cast Cusack as Capt Hook and have it all scored by motherfucking Crass with bonus audio commentary by Noam Chomsky and motherfucking Joel Silver. Cusack as Poe my motherfucking ass!
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Aug. 28, 2010, 8:49 a.m. CST
Poe better have drinking and underage cousin fucking issue
by TheJudger
also Poe was dead before 1850. I guess the killers riddles and clues came to Poe when he worked at the Burtons Gentlemans Magazine. Poe dared readers to try and stump him with riddles and crytograms.
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Aug. 28, 2010, 9:23 a.m. CST
Oh. I just realized why Baltimore's football team is the Ravens
by D.Vader
Wow.
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When he catches a rolled up bit of pigskin that is tossed in the market.
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I'm thinking the only Director Cusack deserves to work with is Brett Ratner. What happened to this guy? He used to be a go to guy in Hollywood.
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You people need to keep me updated on these things. <p> Sure, Cusack has his everyman persona (which, unlike Michael Cera, isn't the same from film to film), but he has also turned in some surprisingly great performances. Check out The Grifters, Bullets Over Broadway, and Being John Malkovich if you doubt me.
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The man's life was unbelievably eventful and would make an amazing film. But this new "RAVEN" sounds like more juvenile Hollywood dreck
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Aug. 28, 2010, 12:21 p.m. CST
The Bicycle Sharer
by Guy Who Got A Headache And Accidentally Saves The World
Yeah, I must have clearly only seen Sherlock Holmes because I only watch "the hot new shit" fuck you you assumption making motherfucking jagoff.
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Aug. 28, 2010, 12:24 p.m. CST
No, you're right
by Guy Who Got A Headache And Accidentally Saves The World
If his Sherlock Holmes was him lounging around talking in a vauge stuffy 1800s-ish accent I'm sure he's saving the real mind blowing shit for old Edgar Allen.
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Aug. 28, 2010, 12:27 p.m. CST
I guess if Holmes hadn't sold well
by Guy Who Got A Headache And Accidentally Saves The World
It'd be some under appreciated classic but it was successful so it's the "hot new shit" that all "the kids" are into. Fuck it, let's jack off at the sight of the criterion logo or some shit.
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He's a better actor, not that he's done much with his talent lately.
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Didn't Michael (ugh) Jackson develop a Poe film, too? Man, if only someone good would do Poe's life on film...
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Don't be dissing Cage. He may have dumbed down for Sorcerers Apprentice, but Bad Lieutenant was fucking brilliant. As for Cusack, anyone want to count how many times he's played a failed writer? It's a recurring theme with him.
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Only then it was the art teacher to Hitler. Cusak was sublime in that. He has a knack for using interesting subjects yet place it in a fictional World to get more freedom. If it's like Max, that Poe will be more interesting than the real deal.
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Especially a Smoking one. Broderick is a terrible actor. He always has the same shtick, same face expressions. He was the Michael Cera of his time.
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Aug. 28, 2010, 8:31 p.m. CST
A Serial Killer using gimmicky, literature-inpsired kills?
by GoodTimeBobby
...paging Doctor Phiibes.
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if there ever was one. The acting equivalent of a drone or mantra.
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It had Samuel Jackson in it. Forget the name. Too many beers. Parts were predictable but still a fun flick.
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Slow night on AICN...almost like the geeks got a real life all of a sudden...<p>Course it is late...they all gotta go to church tomorrow morning...
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Not just a producing partner, he wanted to play Poe. Really, that would have been Surreal.
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Cusack is an excellent choice. I met Poe a couple of years ago and he's a lovely chap. We had a few beers and a few laughs. It was cool shit, man.
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Aug. 29, 2010, 2:55 a.m. CST
Does anyone know: DID POE HAVE TO DEAL WITH HEMORRHOIDS??!
by JonChambers
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everything John Cusack has done after High Fidelity has been one big fucking FACEPALM. <BR> fuck you, Cusack you've shrifted your last ounce of goodwill out of this talkbacker. <br> ps: FUCK YOU TO STEPHEN KING. great job demistifying and letting hollywood raep the best thing (1408) you've done the past 10 years. <br> <p> FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK
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just that Cusack had me so on the come-back-wagon after GrossePointeBlanke. <p>But this shit that he shills for now ... :|
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Jeffrey Combs (Star Trek) played Poe in a long running one man show in Hollywood, and KILLED in it. A amazing performance. Some folks went back several times to see it, and I would have too, had I gone sooner than the final show.
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only if he also plays two other characters in the same movie.
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Look, genius, **I** ain't the one who claimed that Downey's Poe would "basically" be his Sherlock Holmes. That was you, asswipe. Seems to me the only way that one can claim that is if he'd never seen ANYTHING else Downey did. Except Holmes, of course. Yeah, that's my assumption 'cause nobody who'd seen ANY of the movies that I listed would assume that his Poe would be the same as his Holmes. I mean, why not say his Poe would basically be his Chaplin? Or his Dan Dark? Or his Steve Lopez? Or his Kirk Lazarus?<p>What kind of moron assumes that his Poe would be anything like his Holmes? An idiot who either hasn't seen anything else Downey, Jr. has ever been in or the "rocket scientist" who sees no difference between a coked-up Victorian era consulting detective and an alcoholic American poet of a period fifty years prior. In conclusion, you're a moron.
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I always wanted to get Edgar Allen Poe in a headlock. Look at that thing, it's like a pumpkin!
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Good choice, like smashing someone's face in a carton of eggie-wegs.
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the expendables esmeteets the tweets!
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Sounds awful...... And yes, Poe died in 1849. Are they going to make him a ghost detective? OR even (Oh God) a Vampire?
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... "Cusack gotta eat!"
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Yeah, Google just told me that the queen of the gothic tale was born 213 years ago today, as for the King...really liked the Masters of Horror 'Black Cat' episode when Jeffrey Combs played Poe. I remember reading once that Michael Jackson was going to play Poe in a movie, and not too long ago heard that Stallone (he's as mad as MJ don't ya know) was interested in playing Poe, but not sure if it was this very same project. Either way, Cusack will nail it. He can do dark and borderline characters - watch the underrated 1408 for this. So, should be a damn good gothic treat. Just wonder why the script never reached Burton and Depp?
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"$2 dollars!"
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I was thinking "Van Helsing". Let Poe walk around with a gatling gun on each arm. (Yes, the gatling gun wasn't invented until 10 years after this movie is set, but I think that will be the least of the anachronisms.)
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so it would be difficult for him to track a killer in the 1850s.
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I've just lost a lot of the respect I used to have for you. If I were an actor getting ready to play a real person, one of the first things I would do is find out the correct spelling of his name. That would be Edgar Allan Poe (not Allen), as already pointed out upthread by another alert and well educated TBer. Maybe I shouldn't blame Cusack too much, since it's such an incredibly common mistake.
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Which featured Poe teaming up with Davy Crockett of all people to stop a serial killer. It sounds dumb as hell but the book was actually well written, and the story was pretty engaging. This sounds like a rip off of that, only not as interesting.
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