After a fairly under-the-radar production last fall, Richard Linklater will return this year with his Last Detail sequel Last Flag Flying starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, and Laurence Fishburne. We’ve recently heard it’s already been completed, so a debut could be in the works as early as Cannes, but meanwhile the director is quickly gearing up on what he’ll shoot next.
It’s been a year-and-a-half since we last heard Cate Blanchett would lead his adaptation of Maria Semple‘s novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette? and now it’s confirmed to be Linklater’s next next film. With a script adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Spectacular Now, Fault in Our Stars) and a new draft by Holly Gent Palmo and Vince Palmo, the story is narrated by the 15-year-old-daughter of an agoraphobic architect and mother named Bernadette Branch who goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica.
Deadline now reports that Kristen Wiig has joined the cast as an uptight neighbor named Audrey who annoys Blanchett’s character. Annapurna Pictures will be re-teaming with Linklater after Everybody Wants Some!!, and production is already set to begin this June, so we could see it by next year. Wiig and Blanchett sounds like the perfect combo — plus this means that Toni Erdmann remake has perhaps been put on the backburner.
As we await more details, watch an excerpt from an interview in Criterion’s highly recommended Before trilogy box set.