Ethan Hawke Anchors a Netflix Horror Resurgence and an Oscar-Nominated Biopic
Netflix viewers have pushed Scott Derrickson’s 2021 horror The Black Phone back into the top 10, and ethan hawke is earning awards attention for his lead in Blue Moon — a film that has already produced an Oscar nomination for its screenplay.
Scott Derrickson’s Black Phone rings again on Netflix
The Black Phone, a 2021 horror film directed by Scott Derrickson, was sitting at number nine on the streamer at the time of the original coverage, and it stars Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke. The movie is set in 1978 and follows Finney Blake (Thames) as the latest captive potential victim of a local child-killer known as "The Grabber" (Hawke). Finney is held in a barren basement with only a mattress, a toilet, and a disconnected black phone for company, and the phone eventually begins to ring with callers who are the Grabber's previous victims offering advice from beyond the grave on how to escape.
Ethan Hawke as The Grabber: hopes for a third film
Hawke, who is also known for the time-travel film Predestination, has signaled interest in returning to the role. Speaking after the release of Black Phone 2 (also directed by Derrickson), Hawke hinted at hopes he'd be back following the second installment's theatrical run on October 17, 2025. He said, "I would like to go to hell with the Grabber. That's what I'd like to do, " and added, "I'd like to get to know him. That would be my dream for the third one, to let it be a character piece about what made him, who he is now, and how he's haunting other people's dreams. " The franchise has already spawned a sequel, and Hawke has publicly pushed for a threequel.
Box office and budgets: sequel vs. original
Black Phone 2 struggled to match the original's commercial performance, pulling in just over $132 million at the box office compared with the first film's more than $161 million. The sequel cost $30 million to make, a figure the coverage notes while suggesting there might be room in the accounting for another installment if fan demand supports it.
From Jersey high school teacher to Oscar nominee: Robert Kaplow on Blue Moon
Robert Kaplow, described as a 71-year-old wunderkind, wrote the screenplay for Blue Moon, his first feature screenplay, after roughly 14 years of work that began when he discovered letters from a young woman to Lorenz Hart at an estate sale in New York. Kaplow, a former New Jersey high school teacher who previously worked with Richard Linklater to adapt his novel Me and Orson Welles, has received an Oscar nomination for original screenplay for Blue Moon.
How Kaplow and Richard Linklater shaped Hart in Blue Moon
Blue Moon is an all-in-one-night biopic directed by Richard Linklater that follows ethan hawke's winning portrayal of lyricist Lorenz Hart. Kaplow set the film around what he imagined to be the opening-night party for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!, the first musical Richard Rodgers (played by Andrew Scott) wrote without Hart. Kaplow said he aimed to compress a 25-year creative partnership into a minute or two in a staircase scene, and he described the pair as loving and exasperating one another across decades of collaboration. The film runs roughly 90 minutes and, the coverage notes, presents a shrewd, longing and vulnerably discontented Hart who carries much of the film's dialogue.
Collaborating with Hawke: voice, language and performance
Kaplow discussed working with Hawke to find Hart's voice. "Ethan is a writer himself, and I always saw in him an actor who feels and even tastes language, " Kaplow said, adding that Hawke understood Hart as a man who "breathed language — it's in his blood and DNA. " Kaplow quoted a line from the film, "Larry Hart is drunk with beauty — wherever he finds it. In men, in women, in the smell of cigar stores, " and said Hawke made the lines sing. Kaplow also recalled telling Linklater, "I've read this script a hundred times, and it still puts tears in my eyes. "
Kaplow acknowledged invention in his approach: "The facts suggest that Hart did go to the opening night of Oklahoma! Whether he showed up to the afterparty or not, that's my invention, " he said.
Additional items mentioned alongside the coverage include related movie notes that "KPop Demon Hunters" swept the Annie Awards and that "Four Minus Three" won the Europa Cinemas Prize, and a passing nod that Kristen Stewart has a title available on Hulu.
When it came to putting the voice and tone of Hart on the page, the source material in the provided context cuts off mid-sentence and the remainder is unclear in the provided context.
Plans for a third Black Phone and any further scheduling are unclear in the provided context; what is confirmed is that Black Phone 2 was released to theaters on October 17, 2025, Robert Kaplow has an Oscar nomination for original screenplay, and ethan hawke is nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in Blue Moon.
