Three Oscar-nominated actors will team up as Vietnam War battle buddies for “Last Flag Flying,” an Amazon Studios comedy-drama set for theatrical release in November. The official trailer went online Thursday:
Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne play Marine Corps veterans who reunite with a former Navy corpsman, portrayed by Steve Carell, to attend the funeral of his Marine son, who fell early in the invasion of Iraq.
Per the trailer, not only do things not go as planned, the fallout allows the actors to flex both comedy and drama muscles; one entertainment-industry write-up already includes the phrase “Oscar contender.”
The movie is based on a 2005 novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicsan, a sequel to Ponicsan’s “The Last Detail.” That book was adapted into a 1973 film starring Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid; Nicholson and Quaid both earned Academy Award nominations, and the film received a nomination for best adapted screenplay.
The upcoming film, directed by Richard Linklater (”Dazed and Confused,” “A Scanner Darkly”) will open the New York Film Festival with a Sept. 28 world-premiere screening. It will be in select theaters Nov. 3, with a planned nationwide release Nov. 17.
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
