Oscilloscope Acquires Ethan Hawke Film ‘Wildcat’

Valerie Complex
·3 min read
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Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Ethan Hawke’s portrait of Flannery O’Connor, Wildcat, starring and executive produced by Maya Hawke. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival. Oscilloscope will release the film in theaters in the Spring.


Directed and co-written by 4-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, Wildcat tells the story of Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s 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?

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In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) 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 great 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 said, “I can’t help but feel a strange thrill imagining the pleasure Ms. O’Connor would have at knowing that a company dedicated to championing art—Oscilloscope—is releasing a film inspired by her life and work. We have found the perfect partners and can’t wait to release this film.”
O-Scope’s Dan Berger said, “It’s very exciting to me that we’ll get to bring Wildcat to audiences. It’s an inventive and unique look at an artist that was herself inventive and unique. Ethan and Shelby Gaines’s script embraces non-conventional storytelling, not being content with a typical biopic structure, instead blending fact, fiction, and everything in between, to give us a true portrait of a complicated human rendered more real as a result. The direction is deft and thrilling, and the performances are wonderful across the board, anchored by a true tour de force from Maya Hawke.”

The film was produced by Renovo Media Group, Good Country Pictures, and Under the Influence Productions. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance represent the film for worldwide distribution rights and negotiated the deal on behalf of the film team.


The cast of Wildcat also includes: Laura Linney, Philip Ettinger, Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman, Steve Zahn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Alessandro Nivola, Christine Dye, Willa Fitzgerald, and Levon Hawke. Director: Ethan Hawke. Screenwriters: Ethan Hawke and Shelby Gaines. Producers: Joe Goodman, Ryan Hawke, Karri O’Reilly, and Cory Pyke. Executive producers: David Kingland, Eric Groth, Maya Hawke, Wojciech Frykowski, Shelby Gaines, Brian Tetsuro Ivie, Gregory Daniel King, and Ralph Winter. Director of photography: Steve Cosens. Production designer: Sarah Young. Costume designer: Amy Andrews Harrell. Editor: Barry Poltermann. Composers: Latham Gaines and Shelby Gaines.

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