John Cusack to play Edgar Allen Poe in `The Raven`

Los Angeles: `2012` star John Cusack will play American author Edgar Allen Poe in a new biopic `The Raven`, named after Poe hugely popular 1845 poem. The actor, best known for his roles in films like `America`s Sweethearts` and `Serendipity`, disclosed his attachment to the project via a twitter post yesterday. Shooting for the movie, to be directed by James McTeigue of `V for Vendetta, begins late fall. Intrepid Principals Trevor Macy and Marc D Evans will produce with FilmNation`s Aaron Ryder, who brought the script to Intrepid, a magazine reported. The movie has been in the development for several years at FilmNation and Endgame, which is no longer involved. `The Raven` is based on a Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston script and documents the last five days of Poe`s life, when a serial killer is running around Baltimore using Poe`s stories as the backdrops to his killings. Poe and a young detective have a ticking clock to outsmart the killer before he kills again. Poe`s best known work is the poem `The Raven` published in 1845. He died four years later at the age of 40 in Baltimore. Cusack was last seen in `Hot Tub Time Machine`. PTI