Here’s your first look at John Cusack as famous gothy poet Edgar Allen Poe in the James McTeigue (V for Vendetta and Ninja Assassin) directed adaptation, “The Raven.” I gotta say, he’s almost a spitting image of Poe. The resemblance is uncanny and if he lost maybe a few more pounds he’d be a clone.

“The Raven” is not based on Poe’s classic poem, but rather a fictionalized story of a Baltimore serial killer loose in the 1850’s. According to McTeigue it is about a serial killer inspired by Poe’s stories and uses them as his methodology, blaming Poe for the murders and daring Poe to stop him. It covers the last five mysterious days of Poe’s life hunting for the serial killer and has been described as a mix between “The Raven” and David Fincher’s “Se7en.”

Joining Cusack will be Luke Evans and Alice Eve. “The Raven” drops sometime next year.