How does a writer create the stories they concoct? Especially an author of such great renown as Edgar Allan Poe. The scribe behind such literary greats as "The Raven", "The Tell-Tale Heart", and "The Fall of the House of Usher" is unquestionably among the most well-known pens in history, but he was once a man, living a life beyond fame and infamy. His origins will be explored — at least, in part — for Netflix's latest horror mystery, The Pale Blue Eye, which has received a new trailer.
Written, directed, and produced by Scott Cooper, who reunites with star/fellow producer Christian Bale ten years after their first collaboration together, Out of the Furnace, The Pale Blue Eye follows Augustus Landor (Bale), a world-weary detective who has grown accustomed to the bleak and morose nature of human existence. Summoned to the West Point military academy, where a cadet was murdered under irregular and alarming circumstances, Landor finds himself a kindred cold spirit in another cadet, the man we now know best as Poe. Through their unexpected company, they'll try to track down the person responsible for such heinous acts. But as Landor notes at the beginning of this trailer, every murderer will investigate themselves with time. Perhaps that's a tell-tale sign of what sinister revelations will come.
Also starring Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, and Robert Duvall, to name only a few notable actors attached. Cooper has always been able to attract some notable talent to his projects — though, as per usual with the director's movies, it's the atmospheric setting that's expected to make the biggest impression. Whether it's the southwestern heartlands in his directorial debut, Crazy Heart, the depressed South Boston locales in Black Mass, or, more recently, the haunted woodlands of British Columbia (filling in for Oregon) in last year's Antlers, Cooper knows how to infuse a sense of time, history, and place within his films, and how they can inform the moody, weighted characters found therein. Certainly, the gothic, snowy, barren landscapes in this new trailer prove that his latest film will, once again, honor his commitment to letting the lay of the land inform the stories he tells.
With The Pale Blue Eye, Cooper and Bale return to Western Pennsylvania, namely near Pittsburgh, as they did with the aforementioned Out of the Furnace, which took special notice of the town's industrial steel mills in its exploration of worn-down, hard-fought characters trying to make the best of bad times. In comparison, The Pale Blue Eye will avoid the rust and steel of the city almost entirely, focusing more on the blistering wintery winds of PA's chillier locations. As a result, the cinematography appears to honor not only Poe's legendary text but the source material by Louis Bayard. His 2003 historical fiction novel of the same name serves as the main inspiration for this chilling murder mystery/Poe's haunted origins.
As Cooper noted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Pale Blue Eye will be telling three connecting stories in one. It's a mystery period piece whodunnit, of course, and it'll also tell us, in historically fictitious fashion, how Poe became the author we know him to be today. Additionally, it will also serve as a father-and-son type story, with these two different-yet-similar sources finding renewed live/burning purpose in solving this strange death. Through their unlikely bond, they'll impart a kindled/rekindled purposefulness.
The Pale Blue Eye will screen in select theaters on December 23rd, before making its way onto Netflix on January 6th. Check out the new trailer below: