The director reveals in a new promo clip that he already had the legendary actor in mind when he wrote the screenplay for The Pale Blue Eye.
from Netflix The light blue eye began showing in select theaters a few weeks ago, but will hit the streaming platform this Friday. The chiller-thriller is set at West Point Academy in the winter of 1830, where a detective named Landor investigates a strange murder. Netflix’s new promo clip reveals the crew’s admiration for each other Scott Cooper with particular praise for lead actors Christian Bale and Harry Melling:
“This is the third film I’ve written especially for Christian. He tends to embody my characters in a way that quite frankly other actors couldn’t…Harry Melling is beyond my imagination and brings the Poe I envision had to life. I’ve just been so lucky to be able to cast actors that I’ve admired for a long time.”
The other films that Scott Cooper and Christian Bale have worked on include Out of the oven and Enemies. On the other hand, Cooper barely knew who Harry Melling was when he cast him in the film, as he had only seen him in a small role in the film. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. However, Cooper has since praised Melling, both as an actor and as a person, and hopes he gets more roles.
Harry Melling praised the set design, claiming that “every day you walk onto the set and just step back in time”. The featurette also teases the English actor’s southern accent in a movie that puts much of the cast in the shoes of characters thousands of miles — and hundreds of years — from their homes.
Christian Bale says you don’t have to read Edgar Allan Poe to enjoy the movie
The film is based on a 2003 book by Loius Bayard, which was influenced by the writings of American author Edgar Allan Poe in the 19th century. Poe is often credited as the inventor of the mystery and horror genres by many people, including director Scott Cooper himself. The film depicts a fictionalized version of Poe played by Harry Melling, though his character is based on what we know about Poe’s personality.
Christian Bale says the film will not only appeal to Poe fans, but also those unfamiliar with the legendary author:
“It’s something where you can have zero knowledge of Poe and just enjoy it for a detective thriller. If you’re a Poe fan, holy shit, you know, this is just a gold mine.”
So if you don’t know anything about Edgar Allan Poe or haven’t read anything by him, you might want to check it out The light blue eye when it begins streaming on Netflix on January 6, 2023. It stars Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Robert Duvall, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, and Toby Jones. Scott Cooper directed the film in addition to writing the screenplay. You can watch the full featurette below: