Netflix has picked up the upcoming horror thriller The Pale Blue Eye starring Christian Bale, paying $55 million for the title, Deadline reports. This is thought to be a record for a worldwide deal at the European Film Market.
The movie follows the attempt to solve a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Bale will play a veteran detective who investigates the murders, helped by a young cadet who will later become a world-famous author – Edgar Allan Poe (there's no word yet on who will play Poe).
Directed by Scott Cooper, The Pale Blue Eye will see the actor and director re-team after Bale starred in Hostiles, Cooper's 2017 Western, alongside Rosamund Pike and Jesse Plemons. The pair also worked together on crime drama Out of the Furnace in 2015. Cooper penned the script for The Pale Blue Eye, too, which is an adaptation of Louis Bayard's novel of the same name.
This isn't Netflix's only recent big acquisition – the streaming platform recently paid a record $18 million for the US rights to upcoming Liam Neeson flick, The Ice Road, as well as splashing out on Colin Firth-led World War II drama Operation Mincemeat.
