Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke are among the cast announced for Blue Moon, the new film from American director Richard Linklater that is set to be filmed in Ireland this summer.
According to US entertainment industry website Deadline, the project from the Hit Man director has been in the works with long-time collaborator Hawke for many years.
The Robert Kaplow-penned script profiles the final days of Lorenz Hart, part of the legendary American mid-twentieth-century songwriting duo Rodgers & Hart.
Blue Moon is set primarily in Sardi's Restaurant in New York on 31 March, 1943 on the opening night of the musical Oklahoma!. This was a significant date, as it marked Rodgers's first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II, who was Hart's replacement.
Linklater said of the film: "Robert [Kaplow], Ethan [Hawke], 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 will be Hawke's ninth collaboration with Linklater following projects such as the Before trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight) and the coming-of-age drama Boyhood.
The project, which will also star Bobby Cannavale, is set to film in Dublin this summer, according to Deadline.
Linklater will produce Blue Moon alongside Mike Blizzard and his manager John Sloss.
The film will be a Detour/Renovo production in association with the Dublin-based Wild Atlantic Pictures, Under The Influence and Cinetic Media.
Sony Pictures Classics will support the production, and Sony will release the film worldwide.
A spokesperson for Sony Pictures Classics said in a statement: "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."
