Maya Hawke stars as Flannery O’Connor, the celebrated author of Southern Gothic-inspired short stories, novels, and essays, in Wildcat.
The film, directed and co-written by Hawke’s father, Ethan Hawke, follows a 24 year-old Flannery in 1950s Georgia as she deals with a lupus diagnosis. She returns home to her mother, Regina (Laura Linney), and begins writing some of her most imaginative stories as she attempts to heal her relationship with her mom.
Throughout, the film offers fictionalized adaptations of several of Flannery’s most beloved short stories, which include cast members Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman, and Steve Zahn. Also appearing in Wildcat are Liam Neeson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Alessandro Nivola, Christine Dye, Willa Fitzgerald, and Ethan Hawke’s son, Levon Hawke. Watch the trailer for Wildcat below.
The film, which premiered at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival in September 2023, is co-written by one of Hawke’s frequent theater collaborators, Shelby Gaines. Wildcat will land in theaters as a limited release May 3rd, 2o24, with a wide release set to follow.
Wildcat may not be Ethan Hawke’s first Southern-centric biopic — he previously directed and co-wrote the 2018 country biopic Blaze — but it is his first narrative feature that includes his daughter, Maya. Ethan Hawke previously helmed the documentary on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, The Last Movie Stars, which featured Maya, in 2022, and collaborated musically on a Willie Nelson cover last fall. Meanwhile, Maya Hawke teamed up with her mother Uma Thurman on the 2023 comedy thriller The Kill Room.
In addition to shooting Stranger Things’ final season this year and starring in the new Inside Out sequel, Maya Hawke is also gearing up to release a new album, Chaos Angel, which is due out on May 31st. Watch her perform her new single “Missing Out” on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this year.