Relativity just sent over this brand new poster for their upcoming release The Raven, which is directed by James McTeigue and stars John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. The poster is a’ight, but I wonder if the actual movie will be any good. As much as I love McTeigue’s V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin was almost unwatchable.
My first big issue is with the official synopsis, which begins by saying, “In this gritty thriller…”
I would like to take this opportunity to suggest the word “gritty” ought to be banned from any and all movie marketing moving forward. Ironically enough, another bird-themed feature that just got the greenlight after some legal troubles is Relativity’s remake of The Crow, which just yesterday assigned F. Javier Gutierrez (Before the Fall) to direct and Jesse Wigutow to write.
Get a load of Variety‘s description of the plot:
The Crow adaptation will be a gritty reboot of the iconic character Eric Draven, who returns from the grave as The Crow on a mission to avenge his wife’s murder, so that his soul can finally rest.
Ha, a “gritty reboot”. It makes it sound like the studios are working as some sort of furniture reseller and taking old coffee tables and giving it that “weathered look”. Today’s movies are becoming the acid washed jeans of a new age. On top of that, Relativity sure is high on the bird movies aren’t they? Next up is The Pigeon starring Mike Tyson (a joke I half-stole from Source Code director Duncan Jones’s Twitter post).
Anyway, The Raven will be all kinds of gritty as John Cusak plays Edgar Allan Poe who joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Evans) to hunt down a serial killer who’s using Poe’s own works as the basis in a string of brutal murders.
I’ve included the new poster directly below and you get a larger look at it in my full gallery for the film right here. I’ve also included the trailer at the bottom of this post if you haven’t yet seen it. Here’s a spoiler for you though… it’s quite gritty.
