Rian Johnson’s wiring prowess has granted him academy award nomination for his work on the previous two “Knives Out” films, the 2019 movie of the same name and 2022’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” – and the franchise’s third installment, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” will surely be no different. All three films are murder mysteries built on the question of who-done-it, but at the 2025 Austin Film Festival, Johnson wasn’t asked who did it, but how he reimagined the genre.
Coming off of “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi,” Johnson said he revisited an idea he had been playing with for 10 years that was built around his love of the books and film adaptations of Agatha Christie. After telling his friends that this is what he wanted to use his Star Wars money on, Johnson said his friends and movie studios didn’t see the potential in it – something Johnson agreed with if not for his genre reversal that traded a murder mystery’s surprise for suspense.
While “Knives Out,” Johnson said, starts as more traditional who-done-it, instead of the second act being bogged down with collecting clues, he subverted it to become a Hitchcock-esque thriller. Johnson said this genre change mid-way through turned the film on its head because the supposed killer was not a falsely accused victim looking to prove their innocence and the traditionally heroic detective was now the antagonist.
A convention Johnson said he actually kept the same was the use of technology. Even in Christie’s novels, technology plays a key role, said Johnson — the technology just happens to be the telephone. So when incorporating modern cell phones into the plots of his murder mysteries, Johnson said it is another conduit to create moments of fun and engage the viewer.
Another addition Johnson said he made to the murder mystery was clearly defining “Knives Out’s” beating heart.
“It’s impossible to fool the audience,” Johnson said. “They will bring their own theories and red herrings better than you could ever write them.”
Because of this knowledge, Johnson said he had to provide emotional engagement to act as the throughline to the narrative. In the first film when Ana de Armas’ character accidentally kills Christopher Plummer, Johnson said, we are given prior insight as to their deep relationship to make the murder more impactful.
When it came to finding the emotional core of his latest film, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” Johnson said he based it around his own struggles with fighting verses embracing faith – having grown up protestant but having strayed from it as an adult. This third film centers a bulk of its screen time on the new protagonist, Jud Duplenticy, so the audience can truly get a feel for his worldview, Johnson said. In fact to increase emphasis on their new addition, fan favorite Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, doesn’t show up till the end of the first act.
More on the franchise’s only mainstay, Johnson said he started out as a bunch of quirks, having an eye patch in one iteration, and only a slight southern accent. When it came to casting the detective, Craig was Johnson’s first choice, though because of scheduling conflicts with a James Bond film, other actors were discussed, the director said. Luckily, however, due to a three month production pause on the spy franchise’s latest film, Johnson said he was able to get Craig for the shoot of “Knives Out.” After Blanc’s southern accent was nailed down, going from a Tennessee Williams to more of a Shelby Foote, Johnson said the film was just him and Craig cracking each other up.
In each of the three films, Johnson said Blanc’s function is revealed through the story, but in the latest entry, the detective’s belief system is more fleshed out — embodying the director’s conflicting views on religious faith. Where Duplenticy is Christ like, Johnson said Blanc is cynical and puts his efforts into a more black and white justice system. Since the film’s director believes strongly in both of these sides, he isn’t loading the dice in favor of one or the other, but lets his viewpoints battle it out on screen.
Despite their being little to no interest for an original murder mystery in the 21st century, much less one worth betting a Star War sized bucket of cash on, Johnson reimagined the classic who-done-it by putting not only an emotional core at the center of the “Knives Out” film, but his moral center as the primary conflict for “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”
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Featured Image Courtesy of Austin Film Festival