As fans ofRichard Linklaterno doubt know, it took for than a handful of hot minutes for the filmmaker to getEverybody Wants Some!!, his sublime “spiritual sequel” toDazed and Confusedoff the ground. This is a constant in Linklater’s career, as well as several other major filmmakers' careers, but with the tremendous success ofBoyhood, Linklater has had a chance to get a few of these projects funded.
Amongst them is a sequel toThe Last Detail, which takes place 40 years after theHal Ashbyclassic, which chartered the short journey of two naval officers (Jack NicholsonandOtis Young) tasked with delivering a young officer (Randy Quaid) to naval prison in Portsmouth. For those who haven’t seen the deeply American comedy yet, it’s fantastic, and Ashby is clearly a forebearer of Linklater’s quietly radical style.
The film, entitledLast Flag Flying, is now in the works, and today,THR announcedthat Linklater has rounded up an excellent trio of actors to (presumably) play the same characters.Bryan Cranston,Steve Carell, and the greatLaurence Fishburneare now set to star inLast Flag Flying, with sources reporting that Amazon Studios will be backing the project, which will be adapted fromDarryl Ponsican’s 2005 novel of the same name.
Amazon has been backing quite a few major projects as of late, so this wouldn’t come as quite a surprise if it turns out they are behind Linklater’s next project. This year they backedWoody Allen’s wiseCafe SocietyandThe Neon Demon,Nicolas Winding Refn’s faulty yet fascinating riff on Giallo. Nabbing the right to work with Linklater should be chalked up to a major win for them, but the real reward will likely be the movie itself. Linklater has yet to make a straight-up bad movie, and I would argue every film he’s made has been at once personal, culturally alert, and robustly entertaining. There’s little reason for me to believe thatLast Flags Flyingwill be any different.
