Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc is going back to genre beginnings with the next installment in the Knives Out universe, says writer-director Rian Johnson who teased a “gothic” tone for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in a sprawling Q&A published today, the two-time Oscar nominee described the tonal difference between 2022’s Glass Onion and the forthcoming threequel, releasing Dec. 12.
“It’s incredibly different from Glass Onion,” the multihyphenate said. “We put out a teaser trailer a month ago. It’s much more a Gothic, much more grounded tone. It’s more similar to the first one in that way. It kind of gets back to the real origins of the genre, which, predating [Agatha] Christie, go back to [Edgar Allan] Poe.”
Expanding on the decision to switch up the vibe — Glass Onion was a campier cousin of sorts to the 2019 whodunnit that launched the series — the Poker Face creator said he always strives to keep his projects fresh.
“If I feel like I’m repeating the same thing, or turning the crank on the handle and turning out more of what I did last time, I’m not good enough to hide that from the audience,” he said. “So what I end up chasing is the experience of each of these things. It’s not necessarily where I’m going to flip and do a totally different tone, but after three years of working on something that has a particular tone, it’s like you’ve been eating the same thing for lunch every day for three years. I’m more excited about doing something that feels new. That’s similar with the show. It’s not so much a conscious decision. In order to keep it exciting for myself, I don’t want to repeat myself.”
On whether he’d continue making more installments for the Netflix mystery film series, Johnson said he’s open to the idea, but doesn’t have a concrete concept at the moment.
“I feel great! Because I have genuinely taken a swing each time that I didn’t think would work,” he said of potential future films. “Ultimately, that’s the thing you’re trying to avoid. The second you feel like you know how to do this, that leads nowhere good. So I feel fantastic. And with the movies, we can keep doing that. I don’t have something in my head right now. You kind of burn the ship into the sea each time and ask yourself, ‘How will I make anything ever again?’ But I would keep doing them as long as I can.”
Though plot details for Wake Up Dead Man remain tightly under wraps, audiences can expect the return of the shrewd detective parsing through yet another murderous mystery. Joining him are cast members Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church.
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