Christian Bale is set to reunite with his Out of the Furnace and Hostiles director Scott Cooper for an adaptation of Louis Bayard’s murder mystery novel The Pale Blue Eye.
The film will see Bale portraying a veteran detective investigating a series of murders took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Assisting his character in the case is a detail-oriented young cadet who will later become a world famous author, Edgar Allan Poe.
“Even though Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston and died, delirious, in Baltimore, the majority of his life was spent in Virginia, my home state,” said Cooper. “So I grew up with his presence. He bequeathed us the detective genre, and he’s still such a presence in our culture, with every horror, mystery and science fiction writer indebted to Poe. This is my attempt at a large-canvas whodunit, with a serial killer at its center.”
“I want to make films that push me into a different, maybe uncomfortable space, but I am glad to have Christian go there with me,” he continued. “I’ve wanted to make this for over a decade and fortunately for me, Christian has perfectly aged into the lead character. He was far too young when I first thought of making this. Films are meant to happen at the right time. Christian is always in high demand, but to be able to make this with him will be such a joy for me.”
Bale was last seen in Ford v Ferrari, and is currently shooting Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder, where he portrays the villain Gorr the God Butcher.
Via Deadline
