Director Richard Linklater’s upcoming film Blue Moon starring Ethan Hawke, along with Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Blue Moon is written by Robert Kaplow, author of the novel Me and Orson Welles.
The film which begins principal photography this summer in Dublin, Ireland, is the ninth collaboration between Linklater and actor Ethan Hawke
Blue Moon profiles the final days of Lorenz Hart, part of the hit songwriting team Rodgers & Hart, and is set primarily in Sardi’s Restaurant on March 31, 1943, the opening night of Oklahoma!, Rodgers’ first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II as Hart’s replacement.
Said Linklater, “Robert, Ethan, and I have been developing this story for over a decade and are excited and grateful that the time has come to bring this to life.”
This film continues the distributor’s relationship with Linklater that dates back to the release of his first film, Slacker. This relationship continued with Linklater’s films Suburbia and Before Midnight. Sony Pictures Classics has also long worked with Hawke, who has starred in SPC titles including Before Midnight, Maggie’s Plan, Maudie and most recently Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life, as well as with Qualley, who starred in Maggie Betts’ 2017 film Novitiate and Cannavale, in Blue Jasmine.
Sony Pictures Classics said, “Almost a year ago, Rick, Ethan, and John reached out to us with Robert Kaplow’s amazing script Blue Moon. Helping them over the following months to bring it together has been incredibly exciting and now, on the verge of production, with this fantastic cast and crew in place and Rick at the helm, we are thrilled to finally announce it and bring the film to audiences everywhere in the world.”
Linklater will produce the film alongside Mike Blizzard (Hit Man, Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Adventure), and John Sloss (Boyhood, Green Book). The film will be a Detour/Renovo production in association with Wild Atlantic Pictures, Under The Influence and Cinetic Media. Additional EPs include Wild Atlantic’s Macdara Kelleher, Donna Eperon and John Keville, Renovo Media Group’s David Kingland, Lisa Crnic and Aaron Wiederspahn, and Cinetic’s Steven Farneth.
Additional notable film creatives include Director of Photography Shane F. Kelly (Hit Man, Boyhood), Production Designer Susie Cullen (Abigail, I Kill Giants), Oscar®-nominated Editor Sandra Adair (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused), and three-time Academy Award® nominee, Costume Designer Consolata Boyle (The Queen, Florence Foster Jenkins).