Deadline has released the screenplay for 'Blue Moon,' Robert Kaplow's script about lyricist Lorenz Hart's emotional struggles after parting with composer Richard Rodgers. Directed by Richard Linklater, the film stars Ethan Hawke as Hart and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. The release is part of Deadline's series highlighting buzzy scripts during awards season.
Deadline's Read the Screenplay series, which spotlights the most talked-about scripts of awards season, continues with 'Blue Moon,' a poignant tale penned by Robert Kaplow. The story centers on the real-life breakup between famed lyricist Lorenz Hart and his longtime musical theater partner, composer Richard Rodgers, focusing on Hart's turmoil on the 1943 opening night of 'Oklahoma!,' Rodgers' first collaboration with new partner Oscar Hammerstein.
In the film, Ethan Hawke portrays Hart, a figure grappling with mental health issues and alcoholism, as he steels himself at Sardi's bar in New York City's theater district. Margaret Qualley plays Elizabeth, an unidentified Yale student whose imagined correspondence with Hart forms the script's core, exploring themes of lost love and cultural shift. Andrew Scott embodies Rodgers, earning a Supporting Actor Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival premiere, while Bobby Cannavale appears as the loyal bartender Eddie.
'Blue Moon' marks the second nostalgia-driven project for director Richard Linklater this year, following 'Nouvelle Vague,' his take on Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless.' Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film and released it in theaters in October 2025. The screenplay originated from a rough draft Kaplow sent Linklater over a decade ago, building on their prior collaboration on the 2008 film 'Me and Orson Welles.' Kaplow set the action entirely in Sardi's to capture Hart's sense of a fading era.
The film has garnered significant recognition: Hawke and Scott received Gotham Awards nominations, with Hawke also nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes and the film for Best Picture. The screenplay was named the best of the year by the Chicago and St. Louis film critics groups.
Linklater praised Kaplow as a 'historian' and 'romantic' who dives into historical moments. He described the movie as 'a crazy, perverse idea, to see the triumph of this hit musical [Oklahoma!] but through the eyes of the old lyricist.' The project reflects their shared affinity as 'guys from another decade.'
