It’s always nice to see someone like Edgar Allan Poe get some love in a cinematic era when caped crusaders and the living dead are the hot items. That’s why we like it when someone like John Cusack and James McTeigue is getting his whack at the classic poet/writer in what is being marketed as a true crime thriller.

That’s what we’re hearing about Relativity’s The Raven, which is set to hit March 9th of next year. Here’s an in-depth synopsis of what you can expect to see in the film.

When a mother and daughter are found brutally murdered in 19th century Baltimore, Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) makes a startling discovery: the crime resembles a fictional murder described in gory detail in the local newspaper–part of a collection of stories penned by struggling writer and social pariah Edgar Allan Poe. But even as Poe is questioned by police, another grisly murder occurs, also inspired by a popular Poe story. Realizing a serial killer is on the loose using Poe’s writings as the backdrop for his bloody rampage, Fields enlists the author’s help in stopping the attacks. But when it appears someone close to Poe may become the murderer’s next victim, the stakes become even higher and the inventor of the detective story calls on his own powers of deduction to try to solve the case before it’s too late.

Take a look at the brand new trailer after the jump.

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Now that steam is picking up for Fox’s other Marvel movie franchise, it looks like the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot wants a seat at the cool kids table as well. Last week, we brought you news that both Adrien Brody and Jonathan Rhys Myer were the leading contenders to play the role of Mr. Fantastic, and now it seems we have a similar situation for the voice of the CGI Thing.

In an attempt to up the ante on their superhero projects, Fox has a new strategy of stunt casting the films, like they did with Kevin Bacon and Oliver Platt in X-Men: First Class. It now looks like they are pitting Kiefer Suthland and Bruce Willis against each other to play the stone behemoth in the Fantastic Four reboot.

Comicbook Movie originally reported that the studio was in talks with Willis to lend his voice for the film, and now the chaps at Screenrant are adding to that, saying Sutherland is also up for the role. Awkward.

Also up for debate is the director’s seat, as the studio is playing with the idea of David Yates (Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince), Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces), or James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) to take on the project, so you know the film will either be for kids or…definitely not for kids.

Other casting rumors that don’t seem to have conflict is that Alice Eve will be playing Susan Storm, Kevin Pennington is in talks to play Johnny Storm, and True Blood’s Stephen Moyer will be taking on the role of Victor Von Doom. Much like how the casting news for First Class poured out inside of a few weeks, we can expect the same for Fantastic Four: Reborn in the coming months.

Even though I didn’t exactly give Ninja Assasin a rave review when I first saw the film last year during Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX I was still loking forward to seeing it on Blu-ray when it came out. Well, it has and I did watch it on the HD format and all I can say is I’m more impressed with the film now than I was the first time around.

Granted, the story of a boy trained from childhood in the way of the Ninja who is stalked by his former brothers and their dojo master (martial arts legend Sho Kosugi) and who is also on the run with a Europol agent (Naomie Harris) with proof the clan sells assassination services to governments, is still pretty much the same and the flaws I have with it are still pretty much the same. However, experiencing the film on Blu-ray added very much to my enjoyment of it.

I’ll go out on a limb and say one of the main reasons is that the Blu-ray represents the final version of the film with completed visual effects, final color correction, sound, etc. Most likely the version I saw last September was not the final version. This one simply looks and sounds better.

Visual effects, especially the simulated blood (of which there’s a lot) look far better on the Blu-ray version than before. Also, other effects have been cleaned up and the entire presentation of the film has been improved. Plus, you can actually see more of the fight sequences in this version as they have been somewhat lightened, probably due to early screening feedback. Who knows, maybe even I had something to do with it? It’s possible.

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When I watch a movie like James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin I think about what could have been. Its not that the film is terribly bad, it is just not terribly good. But oh how I wish it was. Nothing would make me happier than to see a resurgence of the ninja movie genre driven by a big budget studio film with all the money, time and craft that could be brought to it.

Instead, we’re given a movie which intercuts the Ninja story with Europol agents and their search for the ninjas. Every time the action cuts away from the story of the ninjas and went to the agents, I was bored. On top of that, the main female researcher is played by Naomi Harris, one of the most annoying and weak actresses in recent memory.

One surprise for me in this film is how much I actually liked Rain in the title role. Sure, his acting for a non-native English speaker isn’t particularly good, but he has a certain screen presence that works here. Seeing him in this film its easy to understand why he has such a huge following in Asia.

Do I wish he was an actual martial artist and could more realistically accomplish the fights himself without the aid of stunt doubles or CGI, of course. Also, the fact that he’s actually Korean and not Japanese and is playing the lead in a very deeply felt Japanese genre film may cause some, as director McTeigue put it after the screening I saw, “push back.” Maybe so, but that’s not really the problem here.

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We’ve been pretty excited for Warner Bros.’ newest action film, Ninja Assassin around the office, and we just came across a few clips that got us even more excited. The film hits theaters a week from Wednesday, but we thought it would be okay if we gave you on a sneak peak now.

The film, co-written by comics’ “Who’s Who” J. Michael Straczynski, is about a cult of ninja killers who raise a boy to become a superior ninja. Later, he learns that the ways of his clan need to be stopped. Straczynski has been the man behind such other fan favorites as Spider-Man and Silver Surfer in comics, and Babylon 5, Jeremiah, and even The Real Ghostbusters on TV.

In both 3D and Digital theaters, the film is said to be visually stunning. With James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) behind the wheel, you can believe that the film won’t be boring. We’ll be sure to have plenty more coverage of the film, including a review next week.

In the meantime, check out these new clips (totaling nearly 7 minutes!) from Ninja Assassin, in theaters November 25th.

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