Luke Evans and Alice Eve Join THE RAVEN but Jeremy Renner Drops Out

Luke Evans (Tamara Drewe) and Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) are in talks to join James McTeigue’s upcoming period thriller The Raven starring John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe.  According to Heat Vision, “Evans will play a detective who partners with Poe to search for a serial killer who has kidnapped the author’s fiance (Eve) and has gone on a murders spree that mimics the author’s work.”  No wonder every picture we have of Poe has him looking so bummed.

Jeremy Renner was originally set to play the part of the detective, but had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict with the fourth Mission: Impossible.  Shooting on The Raven begins November 9th with Serbia and Budapest standing in for 1849 Baltimore.  Eve recently signed on to the indie thriller ATM while Evans is wrapping up filming on Paul W.S. Anderson’s 3D adaptation of The Three Musketeers.  Hit the jump for what McTeigue had to say about The Raven to Steve back in November of last year.

During the press junket for Ninja Assassin, McTeigue told Steve that The Raven is a major departure for him, but that it’s ultimately “world creation” which is what he really likes.  The film won’t be necessarily a historical recreation, but rather “Poe’s vision of 1850s Baltimore.”  McTeigue also says that he’d like to blend practical and digital effects, such as digitally mixing certain buildings with physical structures.  While at the time, McTeigue was planning to shoot in March of this year, obviously that was delayed somewhat.  However, it now looks like that this picture has finally come together.