First Look At Richard Linklater’s ‘Blue Moon’ Released, To Premiere At Berlinale
Fans have been eagerly awaiting Richard Linklater’s next film following a hit with Hit Man, and now a first look at Blue Moon has been released.
Heavily regarded as an auteur, and one of the greatest directors of all time, Richard Linklater has quite the filmography. Ranging from groovy hangout films like Dazed and Confused and Slacker, to breezy romances like Before Sunrise, to comedic genius in the form of School of Rock, he has done it all. Read on for the Blue Moon first look.
He’s known for his highly experimental style, with his Before trilogy being directed and released every nine years, allowing for real life aging. Similarly, the film Boyhood chronicles the life of a real boy, who acts from infancy into his late teens. Linklater is set to continue this line of experimentation with time with a movie, Merrily We Roll Along, being shot over the course of 20 years, with two sequences having been shot as of November 2024. We won’t have to wait for another 20 years however, with Linklater’s next film right around the corner.
In recently announced news, Blue Moon will officially premiere at the Berlinale Film Festival next month, on February 18th, 2025. The news was revealed alongside an official still for the film, which you can see above, and depicts a scene between actress Margaret Qualley (best known for her roles in The Substance, Poor Things and Drive Away Dolls) and frequent Linklater collaborator Ethan Hawke.
In a description provided by IndieWire, Blue Moon follows “American lyricist Lorenz Hart as he battles with alcoholism and mental health during the opening of the Broadway show Oklahoma! on March 31, 1943.” Rounding out the rest of the leading cast are actors Andrew Scott, who comes hot off a riveting performance in Netflix’s Ripley, and Bobby Cannavale who most recently starred in Amazon MGM’s Unstoppable, alongside Jennifer Lopez and Jharrel Jerome.
Blue Moon marks the ninth collaboration between Linklater and Hawke, their first since Boyhood back in 2014. Before that, he had starred in Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight as well as Tape, Waking Life, Fast Food Nation and The Newton Boys. Coming up for Hawke, is the sequel to The Black Phone, where he collaborates with Scott Derrickson and Mason Thames as the villainous Grabber.
Meanwhile, Linklater keeps busy with a second movie releasing in 2025, Nouvelle Vague, a film about the making of Jean Luc-Godard’s Breathless.
Thanks for reading this article on the Blue Moon first look. For more news, stay tuned here at Feature First.
