EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to Blue Moon, the new film from Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater (Hit Man), on which we were first to report, and which will be his next effort after all, with production commencing in Dublin, Ireland this summer.

Ethan Hawke is set to star, in his ninth collaboration with Linklater. Others aboard for roles include Margaret Qualley (The Substance), Bobby Cannavale (Ezra) and Andrew Scott (Ripley).

According to Linklater, who’d previously hinted at a long-time passion project with Hawke, “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.”

Written by Robert Kaplow, author of the novel Me and Orson Welles which inspired the Linklater film of the same name, Blue Moon profiles the final days of Lorenz Hart, part of the hit songwriting team Rodgers & Hart. The film is set primarily in Sardi’s Restaurant on March 31, 1943, the opening night of Oklahoma!, which marked Rodgers’s first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II as Hart’s replacement.

Financed by Sony Pictures Classics and Renovo Media Group, the film continues the former’s relationship with Linklater, which dates back to the release of his first film, Slacker. This relationship has continued with Linklater’s films Suburbia and Before Midnight, and the distributor is also well acquainted with Hawke, having put out his films Before Midnight, Maggie’s Plan, Maudie, and most recently, Strange Way of Life from Pedro Almodóvar.

Linklater will produce Blue Moon alongside Mike Blizzard (Hit Man, Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Adventure), as well as his manager 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.

Sony Pictures Classics will support the production, with Sony to release the film worldwide.

Said a spokesperson for Sony Pictures Classics, “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.”

Hawke, Qualley, Cannavale and Scott are all repped by CAA. Hawke is also with Mgmt Entertainment; Qualley with Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Cannavale with Framework Entertainment and Schreck Rose Dapello; and Scott with United Agents and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.