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Westminster's campus to be featured in ‘The Pale Blue Eye’

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Posted on Thursday, October 28, 2021

Westminster College’s campus will be a featured player in the upcoming Netflix Feature Films’ “The Pale Blue Eye,” starring Christian Bale and Harry Melling.

The center quad on Westminster’s campus—surrounded by Collegiate Gothic-style buildings Old Main, Browne and Ferguson halls and the McGill Library—will be used to create a setting of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point during the 1830s. Modern-era features on Westminster’s quad will be removed or disguised to create the look of the academy during the 19th century.

Filming will take place between Nov. 29 and Dec. 13.

“The spectacular and picturesque campus of Westminster College has been chosen as a major filming location for Netflix Feature Films and Cross Creek’s scripted adaptation of Louis Bayard’s 2003 novel ‘A Pale Blue Eye,’” said a spokesperson from the production. “We are delighted and grateful for the opportunity to film at Westminster College.”

Directed by Scott Cooper, the thriller revolves around the attempt to solve a series of murders that took place in 1830 at West Point. Bale will play a veteran detective investigating the murders with the help of Melling’s character, a detail-oriented young cadet who will later become the world-famous author, Edgar Allan Poe, who bequeathed us the detective genre.

“We are delighted to welcome this film production that will showcase the historic beauty of the Westminster campus,” said Westminster College President Dr. Kathy Brittain Richardson.

Nearly 120 people attended an Oct. 22 on-campus casting call seeking extras to portray cadets and officers.

Bale is an Academy Award-winning actor known for his role as Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Batman film trilogy, as well as roles in “Out of the Furnace,” “The Fighter,” “American Psycho,” “American Hustle” and more. Melling is best known for his role as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. In 2020 he co-starred in the acclaimed Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit.”

For more information about the filming, please contact production publicist Peter J. Silbermann at 818-519-8784.