You know what they say: he’s the World’s Greatest Detective. And while it’s been a good few years now since Christian Bale hung up his Batman cowl, those mystery-solving instincts are about to get a fresh workout in The Pale Blue Eye – a chilly period murder-mystery drama-thriller from writer-director Scott Cooper, in which Bale’s Detective Augustus Landor (note: very good character name) tries to solve a series of murders at a US Military academy in rural New York. Ye cannot handle-eth the truthe! To add an extra wrinkle into the tale? He ropes in Harry Melling’s young cadet as a sidekick – a guy by the name of Edgar Allan Poe. (Yes, that Edgar Allan Poe, it’s not just a wild coincidence.) Watch the trailer here:
Cooper – previously behind Antlers, Hostiles and Crazy Heart – has long dealt with eerie Americana, and this looks firmly in that vein. He’s adapted Louis Bayard’s book of the same name, and brought one hell of a cast with him. As well as Bale and Melling (who continues to have a pretty astonishing post-Harry Potter career), Cooper’s ensemble includes Gillian Anderson, Toby Jones, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Timothy Spall, Robert Duvall, Lucy Boynton and more.
If all that snow has got you feeling festive (the bloody murders maybe less so – though, who are we to judge anyone’s holiday vibe), you can catch The Pale Blue Eye on the big screen from 23 December. Otherwise, you can find it streaming on Netflix from 6 January – a bleak midwinter tale for the bleak midwinter.