Scott Cooper

In recent times, films and TV shows have found rich territory in exploring how iconic figures arrived at their iconic status, from countless superheroes to Whitney Houston to Saul Goodman. Add Edgar Allan Poe to those ranks, thanks to The Pale Blue Eye, as the new Netflix thriller reveals what the famed author might have been like before becoming “that whiskey bent and hell bound godfather of the macabre,” as star Christian Bale (with an assist from Hank Williams) tells Consequence. Written and directed by Scott Cooper, this adaptation of Louis Bayard’s novel stars Bale as Augustus Landor, a detective summoned to the military academy at West Point, New York to investigate a mysterious death that spirals into additional instances of murder. Landor’s primary ally in the investigation is a yo...