In Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying, it's The Last Detail all over again. Hal Ashby's 1973 film starred Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid. Last Flag Flying, opening on November 3, 2018 from Amazon Studios and Lionsgate, is a "spiritual sequel" to The Last Detail, but it started out as a literal one with the exact same characters 30 years later. Executive producer Thomas Lee Wright persuaded Darryl Ponicsan to writer another novel picking up the later lives of the men from The Last Detail. The original book took place during the final years of the Vietnam War; Ponicsan began his sequel in 2003 as Saddam Hussein's Iraqi empire was crumbling. The new film stars Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne.