Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke are working together on a new project.
In an interview published by Interview Magazine, Nowhere’s Gregg Araki asked Linklater about a “secret thing” he was working on with Hawke.
Linklater confirmed that he and Hawke were working on the mystery project just last week. When Araki asked if he should’ve brought up the topic given its secrecy, Linklater said, “I’m always working on a few things, so I don’t really know. Doesn’t matter if they’re secret, no one cares.”
Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater, and the Before trilogy
Hawke and Linklater have collaborated on numerous projects before. Perhaps most notably, Hawke starred in Linklater’s Before trilogy alongside Julie Delpy, which includes 1995’s Before Sunrise, 2004’s Before Sunset, and 2013’s Before Midnight.
Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy have all discussed potentially making a fourth film in the series before; however, Delpy told Variety in 2021 that the project likely wasn’t going to happen.
“What happened was that we — all three of us — agreed that we couldn’t come up with something good for a fourth one,” she said. “It’s that simple. We didn’t fight. We’re not on bad terms. Everyone’s happy…It’s so much drama for nothing. We just didn’t come up with a good idea.”
Linklater told Collider in 2022 about a potential fourth Before film, “You never say never. I think we missed our window. It should be coming out, or we should have…It should be coming out now, but we haven’t…The great idea didn’t really gel. I think the last one took a lot out of us. I don’t know.”
Hawke also starred in 1998’s The Newton Boys, 2001’s Waking Life, 2001’s Tape, 2006’s Fast Food Nation, and 2014’s Boyhood, all of which were directed by Linklater. Additionally, Linklater cameoed in 2018’s Blaze, which was directed and co-written by Hawke.