Netflix’s Edgar Allan Poe Film Adds Gillian Anderson to Cast

The works of Edgar Allan Poe have inspired all sorts of movies and TV shows, with the upcoming The Pale Blue Eye taking a slightly different approach to the figure and instead centering the story around Poe himself. Inspired by the 2006 novel of the same name by author Louis Bayard, the project was previously confirmed to star Harry Melling and Christian Bale. A new report from Deadline details the impressive ensemble that director Scott Cooper has amassed for the project, which includes Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, and more. The Pale Blue Eye doesn’t yet have a release date on Netflix.

The outlet describes the film as a “Gothic thriller” that “centers on a young cadet the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe (Melling) and a series of murders that took place at the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1830.”

New additions to the cast are two-time Emmy winner Gillian Anderson (The Crown), Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist), Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Toby Jones (First Cow), Harry Lawtey (Industry), Simon McBurney (Carnival Row), five-time BAFTA Award nominee Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Hadley Robinson (Moxie), Joey Brooks (Molly’s Game), Brennan Cook (Encounter), Gideon Glick (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus), Matt Helm (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Steven Maier (The Plot Against America), Charlie Tahan (Ozark) and Oscar winner Robert Duvall (The Judge).

Cooper’s most recent film, Antlers, just landed in theaters in October after a number of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In Antlers, a small-town Oregon teacher (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, discover that a young student (Jeremy T. Thomas) is harboring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences. The new trailer reveals that dangerous secret to be that someone close to the young boy, perhaps his father, is possessed by none other than Wendigo, with the boy bringing them their meals (the other people in the town).

The filmmaker had previously detailed his approach to blending real-world themes with more fantastical concepts.

“I thought it was really, really important that we really tell the story of what are the fears and anxieties that are coursing through, not only in America on a macro level, but on a much more local level,” Cooper expressed to ComicBook.com. “These small towns and cities that really have been left behind. Those people who live on the margins are the people who generally populate my films and aren’t really central to studio filmmaking. So it’s important for me to understand them and to understand what those fears and anxieties are and how I can make them all, all too human.” 

In this regard, we won’t be surprised if The Pale Blue Eye finds similar ways of embracing real-world horrors with more traditional scares.

Stay tuned for details on The Pale Blue Eye.

Are you looking forward to the project? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!