Earlier this year, when he made the press rounds at the Berlinale for “Blue Moon,” Richard Linklater hinted that he and friend Ethan Hawke had a long-gestating project set in 19th-century America that they wanted to make soon. Now, in a new interview with Filmmaker Magazine, the director splurged on what that film will be about, and who else besides Hawke wants to be involved.
And while the premise may not attract funding from larger studios, Linklater’s idea sounds like a perfect pic for him. “I’m trying to make a bigger historical thing from the 19th century [about] the transcendentalists — Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Thoreau. The 19th-century American radicals,” Linklater revealed in the interview. “The hippies of the 1830s and 40s, the beginnings of feminism, environmentalism, abolitionism, all that. They’ve got a shitty president, Andrew Jackson. There’s a lot to complain about in our young country, a lot to be corrected and made better. Early reformers who are optimistic about this young country’s future. I’m going to drop in on the 19th century, and hang out with them.”
A hangout movie with the transcendentalists of Concord and Cambridge, MA, editors of The Dial (America’s first great literary magazine), and the first intellectual critics of this country’s nascent culture? In all honesty, that sounds like a splendid time: a “Dazed & Confused” following around Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau could end up a career highlight for the filmmaker.
But it’s who else that wants to board the project that should get even casual Linklater fans excited. “I’ve been researching this for 20-something years, so I think it’s time,” the director continued. “Natalie Portman wants to play Margaret Fuller. She’s perfect. Ethan will be Emerson. Oscar Isaac…. I think it might be coming together. People feel a certain urgency to help it in a way that I’m grateful for. Like, our country needs to see this. I don’t really care about the social impact, but that’s what attracts other people. I just want to make it.”
Neither Portman nor Isaac have worked with Linklater on a film before, so it’d be a treat if they signed on for this. Still, let’s remind ourselves that Linklater is still searching for someone to back this project. Nothing is set in stone, although what remains hypothetical for now sounds amazing.
Still, given Linklater’s recent prolific output and how it’s faring with critics, he could find someone to fund his transcendentalist hangout film sooner than later. The director has two films in theaters this year, the aforementioned “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague,” which premiered at Cannes and is in theaters now. And before that pair, 2023’s “Hit Man” starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona won over critics and audiences alike, with Netflix snatching that one up after a buzzy world premiere at TIFF. But then Linklater’s output has always been consistent, and consistently ambbitious. Career highlights like “Waking Life,” “School Of Rock,” and “Boyhood” should help the director’s cause in getting this passion project made, and perhaps sooner than he thinks.
If Linklater and Hawke don’t make their 19th-century America hangout movie next, though, the director remains busy. Linklater is in year 6 of his massive “Merrily We Go Along” project, which films actors Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein, and Ben Platt through 2040, capturing their natural aging (an approach the director first wielded in “Boyhood”). Or he, Hawke, and Julie Delpy could do another installment in their “Before” series, something that isn’t out of the question.
But let’s hope a brave backer emerges to let Linklater make this historical hangout film. It’s a great match for his sensibility, and no doubt would find a devoted audience even if it doesn’t score at the box office (just like 2016’s “Everybody Wants Some!!“).
