WILDCAT Trailer: Maya Hawke Stars as Flannery O’Connor in Ethan Hawke’s Ambitious Biopic

The life and mind of the late, boundary-pushing Southern writer Flannery O’Connor have been given the biopic treatment thanks to director Ethan Hawke. Maya Hawke stars as the celebrated writer going through a moment in her life where she tries to reconcile her art, identity, and mortality. The packed cast also includes Laura Linney O’Connor’s holier-than-thou mother, along with Phillip Ettinger, Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman, Steve Zahn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Alessandro Nivola, Christine Dye, Willa Fitzgerald and Levon Hawke. Following screenings at Telluride and TIFF last year, the film will finally open in theaters May 3. Oscilloscope Laboratories has just released the official trailer.

In its review from TIFF, HtN wrote “[Maya Hawke] embodies O’Connor’s grit and vulnerability during a moment in her life where she tries to reconcile her art, identity, and mortality. The religious/spiritual undertones in the film may not resonate with everyone, but that should not detract from Maya Hawke’s captivating performance in a visually beguiling tribute to a writer who was willing to stand out from the crowd… Ethan and Maya Hawke make a great team in bringing to life a one-of-a-kind individual who maintained her voice without giving into despair or judgment. From her opening narration to the awe-inspiring final shot, Maya carries the film with a dazzling performance full of resolve and vulnerability. Like Flannery O’Connor’s own stories, Wildcat will first intrigue and then grip you.”

Here’s the official synopsis:

Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, WILDCAT invites the audience to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s mind 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 (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four 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.

Check out the trailer and poster below.

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