The latest film from Richard Linklater stars Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott
In the official trailer for Richard Linklater‘s Blue Moon, Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) is killing the vibe. The famed lyricist is settled at the bar in the Broadway staple restaurant Sardi’s, following his sorrows to the bottom of a bottle as he watches his former collaborator Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) celebrate.
Rodgers and Hart were once a great duo, creating American songbook classics “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Falling in Love With Love,” and more together in the early years of their partnership. But this was March 1943 and Rodgers was hitting a new stride with someone else. Oklahoma!, his first play with Oscar Hammerstein II had just opened and was a surefire hit — and proof that he didn’t really need Hart.
“They should put my picture on that bottle,” Hart announces to the bartender in the trailer. “The whiskey that made Lorenz Hart unemployable.” Rodgers assures him that his “work is brilliant,” but the bottle has always been the problem. “I’m not drinking with you, Larry,” he tells his old partner. When Hart pushes the idea of reuniting with “something people haven’t seen before, something big,” Rodgers reminds him that they’re in a business that requires professionalism.
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Hart’s pivot to throwing his heart at a young starlet named Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley) doesn’t pan out too well, either. He’s in love with her, he tells Rodgers, but so is everyone else.
Blue Moon opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Oct. 17, with a nationwide release scheduled for Oct. 24. Linklater directed the film with a script from Robert Kaplow. It marks the director’s first film since 2023’s Hit Man starring Glen Powell and premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year. The comedy-drama Nouvelle Vague directed by Linklater will also arrive this year.