Richard Linklater Set To Direct BLUE MOON About Songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, Hitman) is working on a new film project. It’s titled Blue Moon and it will tell the story of American songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

The film takes its title from the 1934 ballad written by Rodgers and Hart, the film “watches as Hart attempts to save face while celebrating his former partner Rodgers’ great success on the night of his musical Oklahoma!‘s Broadway opening.”

Rodgers and Hart collaborated between 1919 and the early 1940s, with Rodgers serving as composer, and Hart as lyricist. While they worked together, they created 28 stage musicals and created more than 500 songs in total.

The report explains that the “partnership between Rodgers and Hart ended primarily due to Hart’s increasing struggles with alcoholism and mental health issues, which made it challenging for him to work consistently.

“In 1943, Rodgers began a new collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II to work on Oklahoma!, which was deemed revolutionary for its seamless integration of music, lyrics, and dance into the storytelling, setting a new standard for musical theater.

“The success of the show established Rodgers and Hammerstein as one of the most successful duos in musical theater history, leading to such other iconic works as Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music.”

The script for the film was written by Robert Kaplow, who previously co-wrote Linklater’s 2008 film Me and Orson Welles.

It’s not clear if this will be Linklater’s next movie, but it’s one that he’ll get around to making soon.

Source: Deadline