Surprise! While there were rumblings that Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater were in Greece scouting for a location to potentially shoot Before Midnight, the sequel to 2004’s Before Sunset starring Hawke and Julie Delpy as star-crossed lovers Jesse and Celine, it turns out they were doing more than scouting.
Hawke told MTV, “We’re [in Greece] writing a third installment to Before Sunrise. If it works out, we’ll film it, and if it doesn’t, we won’t. It’s not really worth talking about. I’m just here developing.” Seems it must have worked out and it definitely seems it’s worth talking about.
As you can see in the picture above, there was more than scouting going on as Linklater, Hawke and Delpy finished filming in Messinia, Greece only yesterday.
The plot is not yet known, but a statement was issued by the trio, all three of which collaborated to once again write the script, saying, “It’s great to be back together again, this time in beautiful Greece to revisit the lives of Celine and Jesse nine years after Jesse was about to miss his flight.”
There really isn’t much more to say about the story outside of the state of their relationship following the open-ending to Before Sunset. What we know is the couple(?) is in Greece and the film is set in the year 2013.
As I got off the plane here in Toronto I was told the film may actually show a rough cut or sizzle reel here, but it turns out that’s not the case, though Cinetic Media’s John Sloss will be handling domestic sales and will be shopping the title around the fest. Warner Bros’ specialty arm Warner Independent handled the release of the previous film, which makes it seem a little odd WB hasn’t been given first dibs at the third, though they only handled the sequel after Columbia Pictures released Before Sunrise in 1995 while Warner Home Video issued the DVD release.
With Before Sunset being one of my favorite films and Before Sunrise being and excellent piece to the duology, but I am wary of this third film. Were they able to find a satisfying way to move beyond the final moments of the last film? I can’t wait to find out.
You can get a larger, full-sized look at the picture above right here, courtesy of Deadline.
