The novel The Pale Blue Eye, written by Louis Bayard, is coming to the big screen courtesy of director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Antlers), Deadline reports this afternoon.

Additionally, the site reports that Christian Bale has been set to star in the movie.

What’s particularly interesting about this project for horror fans is that Edgar Allan Poe is a central character in the story, though that particular role hasn’t yet been cast.

Deadline details the plot, “The thriller revolves around the attempt to solve a series of murders that took place in 1830 at the US Military Academy at West Point. Bale will play a veteran detective who investigates the murders, helped by a detail oriented young cadet who will later become a world famous author, Edgar Allan Poe.”

“Even though Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston and died, delirious, in Baltimore, the majority of his life was spent in Virginia, my home state,” Scott Cooper said in a statement shared by Deadline today. “So I grew up with his presence. He bequeathed us the detective genre, and he’s still such a presence in our culture, with every horror, mystery and science fiction writer indebted to Poe. This is my attempt at a large canvas whodunit, with a serial killer at its center. I want to make films that push me into a different, maybe uncomfortable space.”

The film is being produced and financed by Cross Creek (The Trial of the Chicago 7).

Christian Bale is also producing.