Wildcat — the new Flannery O’Connor biopic directed and co-written by Ethan Hawke starring his daughter, Maya Hawke — has scored a release date.
Per Deadline, Oscilloscope Laboratories has settled on a spring release date for Wildcat. The film will open in New York City and Los Angeles theaters on May 3, 2024, before it continues to expand nationwide in the following weeks.
Maya Hawke plays Flannery O’Connor in the movie, while Laura Linney, Philip Ettinger, Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman, Steve Zahn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Alessandro Nivola, Christine Dye, Willa Fitzgerald, and Levon Hawke also star.
What is Wildcat about?
Deadline’s synopsis for the film reads, “[Wildcat] invites the audience to weave in and out of the mind of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor (Maya Hawke) as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing?
In 1950, Flannery visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at 24 years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father’s life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery to ultimately come to peace with her situation and heal a strained relationship with her mother.”
Ethan Hawke — whose past directorial projects include 2001’s Chelsea Walls, 2006’s The Hottest State, 2014’s Seymour: An Introduction, and 2018’s Blaze — wrote the screenplay with Shelby Gaines. He also produces the movie with Ryan Hawke, Joe Goodman, Cory Pyke, and Karri O-Reilly, while Maya Hawke, David Kingland, Eric Groth, Wojciech Frykowski, Gaines, Brian Tetsuro Ivie, Gregory Daniel King, and Ralph Winter serve as executive producers.
Wildcat releases in New York City and Los Angeles theaters on May 3, 2024, before it then begins going nationwide.