Harry Melling, a.k.a. Dudley from the Harry Potter movies and Harry Beltik in The Queen’s Gambit, is bringing young Poe to Netflix in The Pale Blue Eye. The film will be written and directed by Scott Cooper (Hostiles), based on the novel of the same name by Louis Bayard. The film is a “passion project†of Cooper’s, according to Deadline, as he has been trying to get this film off the ground for more than a decade. The film will star Christian Bale as an 1800s detective tasked with solving a murder at West Point. Melling will play the bb Poe, a cadet at West Point who assists in the case.
Edgar Allan Poe is best known now for his spooky stuff, but he is also credited with helping originate the detective story with his C. Auguste Dupin series. The Pale Blue Eye melds two favorite genres of historical fiction: a look back at when Historical Figure X was young and hot and “What If This Mystery Author Solved Crimes?†Entries in the latter category include that episode of Doctor Who where Agatha Christie fights a giant wasp and the BBC series Murder Rooms.