As we pointed out when Liam Hemsworth was rumoured as star, no, The Raven is not a remake of the Edgar Allen Poe wannabe period thriller that starred John Cusack and it's not to be confused with **The Crow. It’s actually based on Ricardo de Montreuil’s ambitious, conspiracy-minded dystopian sci-fi thriller short (see below) and it looks like Gerard Butler is up to take the lead instead.
Universal nabbed the rights to make the short into a movie back in 2010 with support from Mark Wahlberg’s production company. Assuming he signs on the dotted line, Butler will play a man who possesses remarkable powers. He's hunted by the government and the military, who consider him both a threat and a possible new weapon.
De Montreuil is set to direct based on a script that has seen work from Justin Marks and, more recently de Montreuil himself, working with original short scribe Antonio Perez.
Butler last saw action in Olympus Has Fallen, the first of this year’s two White House-in-peril movies. He’ll next be heard rather than seen in How To Train Your Dragon 2, which arrives on July 4 next year.