The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale, had its first official photo released and its premiere date set by Netflix. Cooper’s long-time dream has been to helm The Pale Blue Eye, a “Gothic thriller that focuses around a sequence of fake murders that took place in 1830 at the United States Military.” The film, which is based on a novel by Louis Bayard, will premiere in select theatres on December 23 in order to be eligible for awards and then make its way to Netflix on January 6.
The latest photo depicts a bearded Bale navigating a foggy landscape while holding a light. Because Harry Melling portrays Edgar Allen Poe in the film, the gift seems fitting. As far as we know, The Pale Blue Eye is Bale’s first Netflix production, while Cooper’s is his first. He provided his voice for Bagheera in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Andy Serkis’s motion capture adaption of The Jungle Book. The film had been scheduled for a theatrical release by Warner Bros. but instead premiered on the streaming service in 2018 to mixed reviews.
With The Pale Blue Eye, Bale and Cooper have worked together on three films in total, after 2013’s murder drama Out of the Furnace and 2017’s Western Hostiles. Crazy Heart, a drama set in the world of country music and starring Jeff Bridges, remains Cooper’s most critically appreciated picture. Black Mass, a murder drama, is still his most successful picture, grossing about $100 million worldwide in 2015. Antlers, starring Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons, was Cooper’s most recent picture. The supernatural horror thriller was met with mixed reviews but ultimately made $35 million worldwide. Bale’s most recent MCU appearance was as the villain Gorr the God Butcher in this year’s Thor: Love and Thunder. The film marks the MCU debut of the actor from Batman Begins.
The historical mystery comedy Amsterdam, directed by David O. Russell and starring John David Washington and Margot Robbie, will hit theatres later this year, with him in a supporting role. He is one of the producers for The Pale Blue Eye, along with Cooper, Tyler Thompson, and John Lesher. Starring with Gillian Anderson and others, such as Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, Hadley Robinson, Joey Brooks, Brennan Cook, Gideon Glick, Fred Hechinger, and Matt Helm, is a fantastic cast.