Christian Bale to Star in Crime Thriller "The Pale Blue Eyes"

 

Who doesn’t enjoy a good mystery now and then? Well, another mystery picture is on its way with Deadline reporting that Hostiles director Scott Cooper will be directing the crime thriller, The Pale Blue Eyes, which Cooper himself wrote the screenplay for based off the 2006 novel of the same name. In addition Christian Bale will be the leading man, re-teaming with Cooper from his work with him on the 2017 film Hostiles. The Pale Blue Eyes will see Christian Bale portray a seasoned detective investigating a series of murders at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point in 1830. Bale’s detective character will be teamed up with a young Edgar Allan Poe, who if you didn’t know was a very famous poet and mystery writer way back in the day. 

 
 It is always interesting to hear what inspires a director to construct a story and bring it to life on the big screen and Cooper reflects on his motivations for wanting to make this kind of film in a statement given to Deadline:

 “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. 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. 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.”  

It's great to hear that Cooper is getting to bring to life a story he has been working on for over a decade and furthermore that he gets to work with Christian Bale again. I’ve only seen Hostiles once and I found it to be a worthwhile western with serious themes but at the same time I felt it was a bit more grim and slow-paced than it needed to be. However Bale and Cooper obviously have a good working relationship together and it's great they get to continue that here in this picture. Bale is a phenomenal actor with a lot of range including his performances as Bruce Wayne/Batman, the magician in The Prestige, and the eccentric race-car driver in Ford. V. Ferrari and he will no doubt be able to pull off the role of a seasoned investigator in a murder mystery. I’m not overly familiar with Edgar Allan Poe’s work besides some required readings from high school but there's quite a novelty to seeing one of the most famous murder mystery writers in history in a murder mystery himself to be portrayed by an so far unknown actor. 

 

Mysteries are a fantastic genre in fiction and one set in the 1830s will definitely lend an authenticity to the proceedings of attention to detail required in murder mysteries in the absence of the sometimes superfluous computer technology utilized today in modern day mysteries. I’m interested to see if this film will be grim and serious like Hostiles or have a lighter tone and how a seasoned detective will potentially mentor a young Edgar Allan Poe. Their aren’t a lot of murder mysteries being released in the movies these days but I hope this one is as good as the recent Daniel Craig film, Knives Out, which had a lot of unique and sophisticated layers to the storytelling and if thats the case here we may be in for an engaging experience at the movies. 

 


 

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