Richard Linklater's 'Last Flag Flying' to open 2017 New York Film Festival

June 13 (UPI) -- Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying -- starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne -- has been chosen to open the 55th New York Film Festival on Sept. 28.

The road-trip movie's world premiere will take place at Alice Tully Hall and it is scheduled to open in theaters nationwide on Nov. 17.

The film follows three Vietnam-era Navy vets who reunite after the death of one of their children in the early days of the Iraq war.

"Last Flag Flying is many things at once -- infectiously funny, quietly shattering, celebratory, mournful, meditative, intimate, expansive, vastly entertaining, and all-American in the very best sense. But to isolate its individual qualities is to set aside the most important and precious fact about this movie: that it all flows like a river. That's only possible with remarkable artists like Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, and Bryan Cranston, and a master like Richard Linklater behind the camera," said Kent Jones, the festival's director and selection committee chair.

"It's always special to be at the New York Film Festival, but to be premiering our movie on opening night, when you look at the half century of films that have occupied that slot, is a wonderful honor," added Linklater.

Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th, which went on to earn a Best Documentary Oscar nomination, was the opening night selection for last year's festival.

Richard Linklater's LAST FLAG FLYING will open the 55th New York Film Festival! Read more: https://t.co/wudgGHbtA1 #NYFF pic.twitter.com/MwdkiF5IQT

— New York Film Fest (@TheNYFF) June 12, 2017