The first trailer for Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying just landed. In addition to looking like a real showcase for the trio of talented performers at its center - Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne and Bryan Cranston - this one holds the somewhat unusual distinction of being a sequel to a film that arrived over four decades ago.
Let's watch the trailer first, then we'll get into the history.
Looks pretty solid, right? Probably a few potential Oscar nominations in there. But, again, that interests us less than the history behind the film: in this case, Last Flag Flying is a sequel to Hal Ashby's The Last Detail, which arrived all the way back in 1973. Both movies are based on novels of the same name from Darryl Poniscan (he published Last Detail in 1970 and Last Flag in 2005), and both feature the same trio of characters. Last Flag Flying finds Steve Carell playing the role Randy Quaid filled in Ashby's original, Cranston filling in for Nicholson, and Fishburne stepping in for Otis Young.
Reuniting these characters so many years later is an interesting idea, and we're curious to see this experiment play out (full disclosure: we've not read Poniscan's sequel). Seems as though the gang's getting back together to bury Carell's son, killed in action overseas, and...well, we're guessing this one's gonna be weepy.
Last Flag Flying arrives on November 3rd. Think you'll check it out or nah?