After earning acclaim and his lead actor an Oscar for his 2009 directorial debut Crazy Heart, TheWrap tells us that Scott Cooper has just signed with Fox 2000 to write and direct the drama The Pale Blue Eye.

No other information seems to be given out about what the film’s plot could be, and something tells me it isn’t related to the Velvet Underground song of a similar name. But, some quick Googling around did yield a possible result. That was a link to the Amazon page of a book also called The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. The film being based on this novel is only speculation, so don’t put too much credence into it. Nevertheless, the story is as follows:

“…an intense and gripping novel set during Edgar Allan Poe‘s brief time as a West Point cadet. In 1830, retired New York City detective Gus Landor is living a quiet life at his Hudson Valley (writer’s note: I live there!) cottage, tormented by an unspecified personal sorrow, when Superintendent Thayer summons him to West Point to investigate the hanging and subsequent mutilation of a cadet. Poe aids Landor by serving as an inside source into the closed world of the academy, though Poe’s personal involvement with a suspect’s sister complicates their work. But the pair find themselves helpless to prevent further outrages; the removal of the victims’ hearts suggests that a satanic cult might be at work.”

Could it be an adaptation of this book? Granted, the story doesn’t say anything about the movie being so, and it also sounds quite different from the tone of Crazy Heart. Sometimes, though, a guess is better than nothing.

Were you a fan of Crazy Heart, and do you think this new film could be based on the book of the same title?