Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig are clearly not done with ‘Knives Out,’ and not by a long shot.
Despite his $450M Netflix deal for ‘Knives Out’ and its two sequels now officially ending with ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ Johnson has made it clear that he’s ready for more. Why wouldn’t he? All three were entertaining movies. Nothing more, nothing less.
Johnson is now hinting that there will be more to come, with or without Netflix (via THR):
Creatively, I feel energized after making this one. Daniel and I are already starting to formulate … what could the next one be if we do another one?I don’t know why I would stop doing it if we could keep making them.
These comments come only a few months after Deadline Deadline that Johnson and his ‘Knives Out’ lead, Craig, were “not happy” with Netflix’s “business model.” Their ire was directed specifically at 2022’s ‘Glass Onion’ not getting a proper theatrical run. According to Deadline’s sources, the ‘Knives Out’ sequel could have ended up making $600M worldwide if it had been released in theaters. ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ will have a two-week theatrical bow on only roughly 400 screens in November.
The latest entry, ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ might be overlong (144 minutes), but it’s never boring and features an incredible cast joining Craig for the theatrics, including Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, and Andrew Scott.
The film once again follows Craig’s southern detective Benoit Blanc as he investigates the mysterious death of Brolin’s firebrand priest—with O’Connor as a fellow clergyman-slash-prime suspect. The whole film takes place in a small hamlet in upstate New York, centering around a rural parish church.
Say what you will about Johnson’s cinema of cleverness, but few modern filmmakers have managed to turn a whodunit into a bona fide pop-culture franchise. If ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ lands millions of eyeballs on Netflix, then I’m sure his contract will be re-upped—but probably not in the same ballpark as that ridiculous $450M two-film deal. Another potential scenario could have him going to another streamer (Amazon/MGM?) where a more robust theatrical rollout would be guaranteed.
Johnson recently confirmed that his next project will be a “standalone” sci-fi film. The genesis of the project, he said, came from an idea he had right after making ‘Looper.’