When you're director Rian Johnson you can probably make any movie you damn well want to make. After all, despite the backlash from some fans, Johnson's "The Last Jedi," which was coming off his visionary sci-fi "Looper," was critically acclaimed, confirmed his ever-growing talents as a writer-director, and impressed Disney so damn much that they decided to give him sole authority of an entirely new Star Wars trilogy.
Now, we know that 'Jedi' and 'Solo' had problematic box-office numbers, and that Disney head Bob Iger has confirmed they are 'slowing' down the process of releasing more movies post-Episode IX, so what is Johnson to do in the meantime? How about make an original film.
His upcoming movie, the murder-mystery "Knives Out," sounds incredibly promising and is gathering an impressive cast. Recently added to the mix [via Variety ] is Michael Shannon who will be joining the previously-cast Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, and Lakeith Stanfield.
The film is supposed to be a modern-day whodunit, an Agatha Christie-inspired mystery film, that Johnson has been working on for the better part of 10 years now. Stanfield and Craig have been confirmed to play the detectives on the case, Evans has an unknown role, ditto Shannon who might very well be playing a villain, or at least I pray that he does given how great of a baddie he can be ("The Shape of Water," "99 Homes," "Boardwalk Empire.")
Reports say that there are four other major roles left to cast in the film with production set to begin sometime this year.