John Cusack has announced via his Twitter feed that he will play Edgar Allan Poe in the upcoming film The Raven, asking that fans send “any poe- gold – my way as i begin this journey into the abyss”—assuming, of course, you didn't already trade your Poe gold for cash. If we can believe Twitter (and if not Twitter, what can we believe?), then Cusack will be leading the cast of the long-rumored film directed by James McTeigue (V For Vendetta, Ninja Assassin), who told Coming Soon last year that The Raven would not be an adaptation of Poe’s famous poem (or an update of the 1963 film starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre), but rather a wholly new story set in 1850s Baltimore, where Poe must help track down a serial killer who’s using the author’s works as inspiration. (Of course, Poe died in 1849, so either McTeigue is speaking very generally about the timeframe, or his “fictionalized account of Poe’s last days” is going to take every liberty it possibly can.) Cusack is apparently already diving deep into research, posting this creepy animation narrated by Basil Rathbone for all of his followers. Can getting blackout drunk and marrying his cousin be far behind?