By MICHAEL GINGOLD
One movie is based on the writing of a horror great, the other is about one.
Netflix unveiled its fall/winter 2022 movie slate this morning, including the pair of literary genre features. Debuting on the streamer October 5 is MR. HARRIGAN’S PHONE, based on Stephen King’s novella from the 2020 collection IF IT BLEEDS. John Lee Hancock wrote and directed; Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell (IT), Joe Tippett, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Cyrus Arnold, Colin O’Brien, Thomas Francis Murphy and Peggy J. Scott star. The synopsis: “When Craig [Martell], a young boy living in a small town, befriends Mr. Harrigan [Sutherland], an older, reclusive billionaire, the two begin to form an unlikely bond over their love of books and reading. But when Mr. Harrigan sadly passes away, Craig discovers that not everything is dead and gone and strangely finds himself able to communicate with his friend from the grave through the iPhone in this supernatural coming-of-age story that shows that certain connections are never lost.”
THE PALE BLUE EYE (pictured), written and directed by Scott Cooper (ANTLERS) and based on Louis Bayard’s best-selling novel, will first open in select theaters December 23 before making its Netflix premiere January 6. The impressive cast includes Christian Bale, Harry Melling, THE X FILES’ Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones (BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO), Harry Lawtey, Simon McBurney, Timothy Spall, Hadley Robinson, Joey Brooks, Brennan Cook, Gideon Glick, Fred Hechinger, Matt Helm, Steven Maier, Charlie Tahan and Robert Duvall. According to the PR, “THE PALE BLUE EYE is a project Scott Cooper has wanted to helm for more than a decade. The film is a Gothic thriller that revolves around a series of fictional murders that took place in 1830 at the United States Military Academy, West Point, and surrounds a young cadet the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe, played by Harry Melling. Christian Bale portrays retired detective Augustus Landor, tasked with investigating the murders.” The title derives from a detail in Poe’s classic story “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
