'Queen's Gambit' star Harry Melling to play Edgar Allan Poe in horror flick

Harry Melling, best known for his portrayal of Harry Beltik in The Queen’s Gambit and Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter, is all set to step into an interesting role alongside Christian Bale, confirmed Deadline.

According to close sources, Melling has been roped in to play a young Edgar Allan Poe in Netflix’s upcoming horror flick The Pale Blue Eye, a passion project of Scott Cooper that’s been 10 years in the making.

Melling has some impressive credits to his name, with an upcoming film opposite cinema heavyweights Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in The Tragedy of Macbeth. According to Deadline, he has also just wrapped up an independent feature alongside Adrea Riseborough, Demi Moore, and Karl Glusman titled Please Baby Please.

The Pale Blue Eye, an adaptation of Louis Bayard’s novel of the same name, is set in 1830 at the US Military Academy at West Point and follows a series of murders with Batman trilogy star Bale playing a veteran detective in charge of investigating them.

Bale’s character is helped in his investigations by a young cadet who goes on to become the renowned author Edgar Allan Poe, a character that Melling will now essay.

Netflix landed the worldwide rights to the thriller in a record-breaking deal at the European Film Market in March. The streaming giant reportedly dropped a whopping $55 million for the film.