The Raven Trailer hides under the floor

Relativity Media has released a new TV spot for The Raven, a Poe-inspired crime thriller starring John Cusack.

The film depicts Edgar Allen Poe as he first is suspected of, and then embroiled in, a string of vicious murders based upon his own stories, of which there are many about death and murder.

The new trailer is exclusive over on Entertainment Weekly’s site, but there isn’t much here that we didn’t already see – other than some corny ‘in-a-world’ style narration – in the previous trailer, which was released late last year:

What we do have is a new rating, not surprisingly ‘R’, along with a fresh synopsis of the film:

The macabre and lurid tales of Edgar Allan Poe are vividly brought to life – and death – in this stylish, gothic thriller starring John Cusack as the infamous author. When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Poe’s darkest works, a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) joins forces with Poe in a quest to get inside the killer’s mind in order to stop him from making every one of Poe’s brutal stories a blood chilling reality. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, which escalates when Poe’s love (Alice Eve, “She’s Out of My League”) becomes the next target. Intrepid Pictures’ “The Raven” also stars Brendan Gleeson (“In Bruges”) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (“Faster”). 

Of course there is nothing in this particular adaption which is historically accurate in the slightest, not even the peripheral details, but I don’t think it’s meant to be accurate. Partly, I think the goal is to create a character, possibly for a franchise of films, that is comparable to Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes, which is very deductive and puzzle-oriented, while also relying on some suspenseful action scenes and clever cerebral combat.

The Raven, which also stars Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, hits theaters on March 9, 2012.