Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye is a visually hanging and methodically paced homicide thriller that takes viewers on a haunting journey brimming with satisfying twists and turns. Adapted from the ebook of the identical title by Louis Bayard, it is the sixth movie directed by Cooper, who started his profession with the distinctive 2009 music drama Crazy Heart and continued to supply up compelling tales in Out of the Furnace, Hostiles, and Antlers. The Pale Blue Eye additionally marks Cooper’s third collaboration with Christian Bale, for whom the lead character of detective Augustus Landor was written.
Set at West Point in 1830, The Pale Blue Eye additionally contains a shocking secondary protagonist in a younger Edgar Allan Poe, performed to perfection by Harry Melling (The Tragedy of Macbeth). This is a unique Poe than could also be anticipated by followers of the legendary writer’s work, and the grim nature of The Pale Blue Eye suggests the occasions of the movie’s story had an impact on the character. Together, Bale’s Landor and Melling’s Poe should work collectively to find the identification of a killer who has taken the life—and eliminated the center—of a West Point cadet.
Scott Cooper spoke with Screen Rant about discovering Louis Bayard’s novel, working with Christian Bale on The Pale Blue Eye, creating the proper Poe, and extra.
Screen Rant: This movie is customized from Louis Bayard’s novel. How did you come throughout the story within the first place?
Scott Cooper: After I completed Crazy Heart, my father, who taught literature and English, launched the ebook to me. Much like Poe, I spent my adolescence in Virginia. I used to be born there, [and] Poe moved there when he was three with John Allan, his benefactor. My father stated, “I’ve read the most ingenious book, where the author Louis Bayard has placed Edgar Allan Poe, a young Poe, at the center of a detective story.” Of course, Poe bequeathed to us detective fiction and horror fiction. I learn it for pleasure, and I stated, “Wow, this actually could make for a really interesting film.” That’s how The Pale Blue Eye made its technique to me: my father.
Right after Crazy Heart, which was over ten years in the past.
Scott Cooper: That’s proper. I used to be simply making a movie with Christian Bale known as Out of the Furnace; [it was] my first collaboration with Christian. I shared my screenplay with him, which he cherished. We felt he was in all probability too younger to play Augustus Landor at that time, and too previous to play Poe, so we waited. I continued to work on the script, I tailor-made it for him, after which final yr, we stated, “Hey, what about making The Pale Blue Eye now?” And off we went.
You had been simply ready for him?
Scott Cooper: That’s proper. I used to be simply making a movie with Christian Bale known as Out of the Furnace; [it was] my first collaboration with Christian. I shared my screenplay with him, which he cherished. We felt he was in all probability too younger to play Augustus Landor at that time, and too previous to play Poe, so we waited. I continued to work on the script, I tailor-made it for him, after which final yr, we stated, “Hey, what about making The Pale Blue Eye now?” And off we went.
That is wonderful. How did the efficiency that he ended up giving examine to what was in your head as you had been going alongside?
Harry Melling is so good on this. He’s actually incredible.
Was there one thing that was most vital to you in portraying Edgar Allan Poe at the moment in his life?