After a bidding war against other multiple competitors, Netflix has successfully won the worldwide distribution rights to Scott Cooper’s upcoming horror-thriller titled The Pale Blue Eye led by Oscar winner Christian Bale (Ford v. Ferrari). According to Deadline, the deal reportedly cost the streamer around $55 million, setting a new record for the highest worldwide sale at the European Film Market. The project also marks the third collaboration between Bale and Cooper after working together on 2017’s Hostiles and 2013’s Out of the Furnace.
Bale will next be seen in Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated Thor: Love and Thunder, portraying the villain role of Gorr the God Butcher. He is also expected to star in David O. Russell’s new untitled film alongside Margot Robbie. Both projects are currently in production.
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Based on the novel by Louis Bayard, The Pale Blue Eye revolves around the attempt to solve a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Bale will play a veteran detective in the film who investigates the murders, assisted by a detail-oriented young cadet who will later become a world-famous author, Edgar Allan Poe.
Pick up your copy of the novel here!
The book’s official synopsis reads: “At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet’s body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man’s heart. Augustus Landor—who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective—is called in to discreetly investigate. It’s a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally—a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling. The strange and haunted Southern poet for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe.”
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The Pale Blue Eye will be written and directed by Scott Cooper. Cross Creek (The Trial of the Chicago 7) will finance and produce. Bale and Cooper will both produce along with John Lesher and Cross Creek’s Tyler Thompson. Filming is expected to begin in the fall.
(Photo Credit: Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic)
