Linklater's long-gestating project is a sequel to 1973's Jack Nicholson classic 'The Last Detail.'
Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne are in talks to star in Richard Linklater's next movie, Last Flag Flying.
The project is Linklater’s long-in-the-works "sort of" sequel to the classic dramatic comedy The Last Detail.
Last Flag was author Darryl Ponicsan’s follow-up — published in 2005 — to his own 1970 landmark novel that was made into the 1973 comedy-drama directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid and Otis Young. The Last Detail was nominated for three Oscars, and Nicholson won a BAFTA for his work.
Linklater first spoke about his interest in adapting Ponicsan's book into a film back in 2006 and was at the time hoping to reunite Nicholson and Randy Quaid, with Morgan Freeman taking on the part played by Otis Young, who passed away in 2001.
Now it looks like Linklater is finally hoisting it up the flagpole, with sources telling The Hollywood Reporter that Amazon Studios has landed the pic. It will be filmmaker's first project with the streaming giant, which recently released Woody Allen's Cafe Society and Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon.
The original story centers on two Navy men (Nicholson, Young) who are ordered to bring a young offender (Quaid) to prison but decide to show him one last good time along the way. Last Flag reunites the reader with the trio, now living a post-9/11 American life: The former Naval petty officers come to the aid of their former prisoner, who needs their help to bring home the body of his son who was killed in Iraq. The request sends them back retracing their journey from Norfolk, Va., to Portsmouth, N.H.
A November start is being eyed.
Carell recently starred in the Oscar-nominated The Big Short as well as Cafe Society. He’s the creator — along with his wife, Nancy — of TBS comedy series Angie Tribeca, and he’ll next be seen in the film Battle of the Sexes opposite Emma Stone. Carell is repped by WME and Media Four.
Cranston has been working nonstop since wrapping up his acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad. He recently starred in The Infiltrator and has a slew of upcoming films including comedy Why Him? with James Franco, Franco’s directorial project The Masterpiece and the new Power Rangers film. Cranston is repped by UTA.
Fishburne, most recently seen in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, has Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence coming up. He also will be seen in John Wick: Chapter Two. Fishburne is repped by Paradigm and Landmark Artists Management.
Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne to Star in Richard Linklater's Next Movie (Exclusive)
