Rian Johnson has no desire to kill off his hit crime caper franchise “Knives Out,” despite his lucrative two-picture contract with Netflix having come to an end.
Off the back of the success of the first “Knives Out,” the streamer in 2021 paid a reported $450 million for the rights to two sequels, a deal now complete with third installment “Wake Up Dead Man.”
But Johnson would love to keep going with the murder-solving escapades of his drawling detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig.
“I don’t feel burnt out doing these at all. If anything I feel energized after doing this one,” he said during a talk at the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday. “So as long as audiences want to keep seeing it, and Daniel and I are still having fun making them and still feel like we can come up with stuff that feels not just fresh, but a fresh challenge for us, I think that’ll translate to a new experience for the audience.”
He added: “For now, I’d be thrilled to keep making these for the rest of my life.”
“Wake Up Dead Man.” in which Blanc investigates the mysterious death of Brolin’s firebrand priest alongside O’Connor as his fellow clergyman (and prime suspect), has more darkly gothic tones that the previous two “Knives Out” films. But Johnson suggested the setting perhaps made it the funniest of the three.
“In a way it a much more ground and sombre movie,” he said. “But I still think it’s very funny, and maybe even a little more so than the others, because you’re not supposed to fart in church. Because of the seriousness of it, it makes the funny stuff a little more contrast.”
On Wednesday night, “Wake Up Dead Man” opened the 2025 edition of the London Film Festival, with Johnson on hand at the Royal Festival Hall to introduce the film alongside an impressive selection of his all-star cast, including Craig, Daryl McCormack, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott.
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