Fresh off the success of Hit Man, Richard Linklater‘s next project is set to film soon – and has already secured a star-studded cast. Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott are all set to star in Blue Moon. The film has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, and will begin filming in Dublin, Ireland this summer.

Blue Moon is a longtime passion project for Linklater, and will center around the final days of famed songwriter Lorenz Hart, who with collaborator Richard Rodgers wrote a number of classic showtunes, including “The Lady Is a Tramp”, “My Funny Valentine”, and “Bewitched, Bothers and Bewildered”. “Blue Moon”, from which the film takes its title, was one of their most popular songs, and was famously covered b Elvis Presley. However, Hart’s life was short and tragic; he struggled with alcoholism and his closeted homosexuality, and was devastated when his beloved mother died in 1943.

On November 17, 1943, Hart went on a drinking binge on the opening night of a revival of his and Rodgers’ musical A Connecticut Yankee; he subsequently developed pneumonia from exposure and died four days later. The film will be primarily set a few months earlier, at Sardi’s restaurant on the opening night of Oklahoma!, Rodgers’ first collaboration with his new partner, Oscar Hammerstein II. Hart’s short, unhappy life was previously depicted in a sanitized version in the 1948 film Words and Music, in which he was played by Mickey Rooney.

Who Are the Stars of ‘Blue Moon’?

Hawke is a longtime collaborator of Linklater’s, beginning with 1995’s Before Sunrise; Hawke also starred in Linklater’s two sequels, Before Sunset and Before Midnight, as well as many of his subsequent projects, including The Newton Boys, Waking Life, and his decades-spanning opus Boyhood. He recently starred alongside Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali in Leave the World Behind. Qualley broke out with her scene-stealing performance as a member of the Manson Family in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Earlier this year, she starred in Ethan Coen‘s solo directorial debut Drive-Away Dolls, and is slated to star in his follow-up film, Honey Don’t!; she is also set to appear in the Yorgos Lanthimos anthology Kinds of Kindness, and the Cannes body horror breakout The Substance.

Cannavale first gained attention in the NBC series Third Watch, and previously worked with Linklater on his adaptation of Fast Food Nation. He will next appear in Ti West‘s hotly-anticipated horror sequel MaXXXine, and the wrestling drama Unstoppable. British actor Andrew Scott is best known to international audiences as Moriarty on Sherlock and the “hot priest” on Fleabag; he is currently turning heads as Patricia Highsmith‘s sociopathic Tom Ripley on Netflix’s Ripley.

Blue Moon‘s script will be written by Robert Kaplow, whose novel Me and Orson Welles Linklater adapted into a film in 2009. In addition to directing, Linklater will produce the film alongside Mike Blizzard and John Sloss. 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 will executive produce.

Blue Moon will film in Ireland this summer; no release date has yet been set. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Hit Man

Inspired by an unbelievable true story, a strait-laced professor discovers his hidden talent as a fake hit man. He meets his match in a client who steals his heart and ignites a powder keg of deception, delight, and mixed-up identities.

Release Date

June 7, 2024

Director

Richard Linklater

Runtime

113 minutes

Main Genre

Romantic Comedy

Studio(s)

Aggregate Films , AGC Studios , BarnStorm Productions , Detour Filmproduction

Distributor(s)

Netflix

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Watch on Netflix