Talking to indieWire about a separate collaboration with Linklater, Hawke said: “We’re doing a follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, so that will be fun. We’re going to shoot this summer.

“The biggest change between this one and the last one is the Internet.  The first time we did it, we didn’t have any pressure; nobody gave a shit.”

Hawke – now 41 – starred in Richard Linklater’s unscripted Before Sunrise in 1995, playing the idealistic American traveller who meets Julie Delpy on a train before convincing her to spend the night exploring Vienna with him.

Hawke and Delpy reprised the roles for the follow-up to Before Sunset, when they meet again in Paris nine years later. The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars.

It was revealed Delpy and Hawke were working on the script for the still-untitled film last autumn, when Hawke told French outlet AlloCine: “All three of us have been having similar feelings that we’re ready to revisit those characters.

“There’s nine years between the first two movies and, if we made the film next summer, it would be nine years again so we’ve really started thinking that would be a good thing to do.”

Hawke has largely avoided the limelight throughout his career, carving a career as a novelist while starring in the occasional independent film. He was last seen in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Woman in the Fifth.

Delpy, now based in LA, received critical acclaim for her directorial debut 2 Days in New York, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Hawke remained tight-lipped about details on the movie saying: “I’ve gotten into trouble, so I’m sworn to secrecy.”