{"id":305671,"date":"2025-11-21T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/305671\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T18:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:59:11","slug":"knives-out-3-wake-up-dead-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/305671\/","title":{"rendered":"Knives Out 3 \u2018Wake Up Dead Man\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s an unusually chilly November evening in Savannah, Georgia, but you can feel the heat of the crowd inside the Trustees Theater. The marquee outside highlights Rian Johnson<\/a> as the night\u2019s big honoree for his new movie, Wake Up Dead Man, closing out the 2025 SCAD Savannah Film Festival. Wearing a crisp navy suit, he\u2019s standing in front of me backstage with the crawl of the credits coming to an end, all but peeking through the curtain with a relaxed smile. Then, thunderous applause. This was one of the hottest tickets for a festival graced with the presence of Dylan O\u2019Brien, Kristen Stewart, Brendan Fraser and others. When Johnson walks onto that stage, he\u2019s greeted like a rock star. Before he can leave, he\u2019s swarmed for selfies and autographs.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther than the graying facial scruff and biting sense of humor, Johnson, 51, does not exactly fit the mold of a rock star. He\u2019s polite, soft-spoken and a little dorky. He\u2019s less of a rebel in Hollywood than one of the few filmmakers that all corners of the town remain comfortable relying on. He\u2019s spent the past five years making good on one of the richest movie deals of the modern era. And he\u2019s nice \u2014 like, really nice. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about the guy. His fellow filmmakers adore him, and if you name an actor in demand right now, they\u2019ve likely either recently worked with him or hope to someday soon.<\/p>\n

\n\tWake Up Dead Man stars the man of the moment, Josh O\u2019Connor, alongside icons Glenn Close and Thomas Haden Church; Oscar nominees Jeremy Renner and Josh Brolin; and rising stars Cailee Spaeny and Daryl McCormack. It\u2019s also the third installment in Johnson\u2019s smash Knives Out franchise, meaning that Daniel Craig is again front and center as the deliciously drawling Detective Benoit Blanc. The movie, a gothic murder mystery set within the community of a small Catholic church, nicely represents Johnson\u2019s unique appeal, 20 years into his career: It\u2019s as broadly entertaining and twisty as the previous two films, thus sure to launch well on Netflix<\/a> \u2014 but it\u2019s also darker, deeper and quieter. Where Johnson could\u2019ve harmlessly cruised on past success, he instead took a leap of faith.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s strange how you struggle for so long to be able to do the thing that you really want to do and establish your identity \u2014 and then suddenly you blink and you\u2019ve made seven movies,\u201d Johnson tells me over coffee on the day of the Dead Man premiere in Savannah. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, so I\u2019m doing this now.\u2019 The danger then becomes knowing how to do it \u2014 so I find myself in a place where I want to do things that are scarier and push myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFortunately, he\u2019s built enough goodwill to convince folks to join him on the ride \u2014 that goes for both those ecstatic fans inside the Trustees Theater and the bottom line-driven execs waiting for what he\u2019s got cooking next.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJohnson (right) on the Wake Up Dead Man set with Daniel Craig (left) and Josh O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Wilson\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tEarly in Wake Up Dead Man, O\u2019Connor\u2019s Reverend Jud Duplenticy, a junior priest reassigned to a dysfunctional new congregation, exclaims, \u201cI\u2019m young, dumb and full of Christ!\u201d The line is intently autobiographical. \u201cThat was me,\u201d Johnson says. The filmmaker made Dead Man in large part to excavate his deeply religious youth, a core part of his identity that gradually faded in adulthood. \u201cI slowly realized I was writing this through the lens of me, now,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cI had to step back into me, 30 years ago, and tap back into the things that inspired and drove me as a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe has a very complicated relationship with religion,\u201d says Craig. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the birth of this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson grew up in Orange County, California, in what he calls an Evangelical bubble. He was a youth-group kid aligned with a rising religious-conservative political movement, finding rich meaning in the milieu. \u201cIt might sound kind of cuckoo, but it\u2019s like framing your whole world through a personal relationship with God,\u201d he says. In Dead Man, Jud observes the methods of Msgr. Jefferson Wicks (Brolin), the church\u2019s cruel leader, and how he manipulates his followers. \u201cEvery single one of them is a different slice of my own personal experience with faith,\u201d Johnson says of the church attendees. We get to know them as suspects once someone in the church is brutally killed. Through Spaeny\u2019s disabled former cellist, \u201cI wanted to express a deep embodying of it in a physical way.\u201d Renner\u2019s town doctor reflects \u201cthe notion of a bitterness that you\u2019re hanging onto.\u201d And McCormack\u2019s alt right-flirting aspiring politician showcases Johnson\u2019s since-reversed political attitudes. \u201cI know that feeling, of it feeling good to jab at the world,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cI hope I wasn\u2019t that bad, but I can relate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce in college, Johnson drifted from any kind of religious conviction. \u201cAt some point, I definitely had a moment of, \u2018Oh, wait a minute, am I not a Christian anymore?\u2019 It was a real loss of identity for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to spend the rest of my 20s putting the pieces back together and figuring out a new way to frame the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter graduating from USC film school, Johnson spent years trying to get his debut feature, Brick, off the ground. To make ends meet, he produced promos for the Disney Channel, made instructional videos for the Preschool for Deaf Children and completed a short. At 29, he finally cobbled together a budget of less than $500,000 to make Brick, a hardboiled high-school detective story centered on a sardonic, cynical and crafty teen gumshoe named Brendan. Johnson cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt \u2014 though seven years younger, an industry veteran relative to Johnson by then, with roles in hit shows (3rd Rock From the Sun) and movies (10 Things I Hate About You) \u2014 and teamed with producer Ram Bergman and cinematographer Steve Yedlin, with whom Johnson has collaborated on every movie since. \u201cI had spent so long storyboarding and planning every single shot, so literally every shot in it is something that I was cooking for that decade in my life,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie premiered to strong reviews in 2005 at Sundance, where Focus Features bought it. \u201cI remember being 22 and Rian telling me about their notes, and me getting all, \u2018Who do they think they are? They\u2019re not the artists!\u2019 and blah, blah, blah,\u201d says Gordon-Levitt. \u201cHe pushed back on me, saying, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t know. They probably have some good points.\u2019 That really struck me back then. I didn\u2019t expect it. It was so different from what us young men typically would say.\u201d Brick made slightly less than $4 million at the global box office, an impressive haul for a six-figure indie. Johnson had made a movie that critics and filmmakers admired, but Brick introduced Johnson most clearly as a director who knew how to reach an audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat initial impression hasn\u2019t ever changed. \u201cA lot of great artists, whether they\u2019ll say this out loud or not, have a sort of superior attitude \u2014 and he really doesn\u2019t. He\u2019s got an intrinsic humility,\u201d Gordon-Levitt says. \u201cHis respect for the audience is a big part of why he\u2019s able to make these movies that strike a balance between his deeply sophisticated taste and mainstream popcorn movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, fast-forward two full decades from Brick, and that mix was precisely what Johnson was after with Wake Up Dead Man. \u201cBig, entertaining movies do not really delve into religion,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt was a very emotional experience \u2014 it was very hard to write. The true challenge was, as opposed to writing a navel-gazing movie, to try to express all of that through a big-tent entertainment \u2014 a Benoit Blanc mystery.\u201d He pulled it off, of course. That\u2019s his secret sauce.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe has a huge amount of knowledge about cinema history \u2014 you name it, he\u2019s seen it \u2014 and that\u2019s crucially important,\u201d says Craig. \u201cHe\u2019s always tapping into what\u2019s come before, what influences he has, but he is always on the lookout to be moving forward into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKerry Washington and Glenn Close (far right) in the film, which depicts characters that were inspired by his youth. \u201cEvery single one of them is a different slice of my own personal experience with faith,\u201d says Johnson.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson scaled up after Brick by refining his recipe, proving its worth on expanding budgets and bolder canvasses. His sophomore feature, the heartfelt caper The Brothers Bloom, underperformed critically and commercially, but with the steadfast support of producer Bergman, he then got a shot at helming a studio movie in the midbudget sci-fi thriller Looper (again starring Gordon-Levitt). \u201cI definitely should have been shut down after Brothers Bloom,\u201d Johnson cracks. \u201cI came into the writing of Looper feeling like, \u2018OK, I have to hit this one out of the park because I might not get another shot.\u2019 \u201d The movie won screenwriting critics\u2019 awards, topped 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed more than $176 million worldwide \u2014 nearly six times its budget.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s hard to say it\u2019s been anything but smooth sailing ever since for Johnson, who went on to helm one of the greatest episodes in TV history, Breaking Bad\u2018s \u201cOzymandias,\u201d and the middle installment of Star Wars\u2018 sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi, which divided fandom. \u201cWe made that movie in this beautiful, fearless little bubble, and the reality is, once you dive in and start doing the creative work, there isn\u2019t a lot of room in your head for the notion of external pressure,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet while Last Jedi made good money and satisfied Lucasfilm enough for them to offer Johnson the next movie \u2014 which he politely declined \u2014 here at least was his first sustained taste of backlash. Some audience members rebelled against Jedi\u2018s moody take on Luke Skywalker and its meta sense of humor. \u201cBefore I made the Star Wars movie, when I was very, very active on Twitter, if someone said anything mean about me, I felt like I had to fix that,\u201d Johnson says. Now he engages far more selectively. \u201cHaving grown up as a Star Wars fan, I think the love and the hate are two sides of the same coin, and it\u2019s all passion for what the thing is. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s easy to deal with when it\u2019s coming at you in a personal way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJohnson shown on the Last Jedi set.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures\/Lucasfilm Ltd.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson had signed on to mount a fresh Star Wars trilogy in 2017, and while that plan is effectively dead, he isn\u2019t saying goodbye yet. \u201cA part of my brain will always be in Star Wars,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s so much a part of me and the way I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBack then, Johnson wanted to move onto something new and came to be consumed by a world of his own creation. In 2019, Knives Out premiered as an unexpected sensation in Toronto, another example of Johnson drawing from childhood to create something universal. (It was inspired most directly by such mystery authors as Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, whom Johnson read voraciously in high school.) Knives Out made north of $312 million when Lionsgate released it in theaters off a $40 million budget and earned Johnson his first Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid the filmmaker feel the impact of hitting those major milestones on his career? He demurs: \u201cMy main sense of elevation was just, \u2018Oh, that means we can make the next one.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tNo kidding. In 2021, Netflix acquired the next two Knives Out movies at the height of the streaming wars in a deal worth a staggering $469 million. He laughs knowingly when I point this out: \u201cThe last brass rings \u2014 it\u2019s true, it\u2019s true. It was the last helicopter out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJohnson on the set of the first Knives Out with Chris Evans and Ana de Armas. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClaire Folger\/Lionsgate\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2019, Knives Out thrived in theaters alongside such fellow originals as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite, 1917 and Ford v. Ferrari, each of which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. That was the last normal year for moviegoing; the pandemic hit in 2020, and the box office has struggled to rebound since. Johnson, a strong advocate for theatrical-first exhibition, has yet to play in this treacherous new sandbox.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe shepherded the streaming mystery series Poker Face<\/a> alongside Natasha Lyonne (after our conversation, news broke that Peacock had canceled the show but that Johnson would shop it elsewhere), and he launched his Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion, to great success on the Netflix platform in 2022 (and later, to another screenwriting Oscar nom \u2014 a rare twofer for a franchise).<\/p>\n

\n\tGlass Onion hit 600 theaters for a week before the streaming drop, but the studio did not report grosses, per standard policy. Estimates had it at more than $13 million for its first five days, signaling the demand was there, while Craig reportedly told Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos of the arrangement, \u201cYour model is fucked.\u201d But things won\u2019t change much with the next movie: Wake Up Dead Man will hit select theaters for two weeks before streaming on Netflix beginning Dec. 12.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople generally don\u2019t understand that it\u2019s not just Netflix saying, \u2018You can\u2019t have this number of theaters\u2019 \u2014 there\u2019s a bit of trench warfare going on with the theater chains and Netflix, and the chains won\u2019t play Netflix movies if they don\u2019t have a [longer] window,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cThe temptation is to frame it as \u2018us against Netflix\u2019 or something. It\u2019s not that at all. It sounds a little bit like corporate speak, but it\u2019s also just the reality: You\u2019re in the boat with the person you got on the boat with. You\u2019ve got to kind of start rowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow will the theatrical release compare to Glass Onion\u2018s? \u201cIt\u2019ll probably be about the same number, screens-wise, as the last release. I wish it was more,\u201d he says. \u201cNetflix is our partners in these, and they\u2019ve been awesome. They are what they are, and they do what they do. We signed up for the ride with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can link Johnson\u2019s measured comments about Netflix all the way back to how Gordon-Levitt remembers Johnson patiently absorbing studio notes on Brick, exactly 20 years ago. This is a guy who respects the system and the process and whose ego never gets in the way.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Hollywood is different now. While open to more Knives Out movies down the line, Johnson will next step out of the streaming bubble that\u2019s kept him cozy amid the turmoil. He\u2019s writing a \u201970s-inspired paranoid thriller and says his goal is to distribute that movie in a traditional wide theatrical release. He knows the market has changed drastically and is prepared to meet it head-on. \u201cGiven the realities of the uncertainty of everything, how do we make these movies for a price that makes sense?\u201d he says. \u201cNot to say there aren\u2019t realities in the industry \u2014 and not to say it isn\u2019t really, really tough right now, and we swim in the same waters as everyone \u2014 but I still believe you can make something unique and interesting. That\u2019s still the most valuable coin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson is equipped to meet this perilous moment. He\u2019s spent his career melding idiosyncratic creativity with commercial viability. \u201cHe always remembers that we\u2019re doing it for an audience \u2014 it\u2019s the thing that drives him,\u201d Craig says. Good thing, since the industry is starved for original ideas that will actually bring people to the multiplex. Johnson wants to reach them both in his own movies and in those he helps develop through his production company, T-Street, co-founded and run with Bergman. Put another way: If he can\u2019t figure it out, it\u2019s hard to see who can.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re really committed to finding and encouraging new voices that are, for lack of a better word, commercial in their sensibilities,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cWe want interesting people who have something to say and who want to connect with audiences and bring people in. I think that is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJohnson with go-to collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrancois Durand\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tJohnson is all about expanding the tent \u2014 while holding firm to his values. For example, he feels very much aligned with his buddy Guillermo del Toro\u2019s current anti-AI media tour. \u201cYeah, fuck AI. It\u2019s something that\u2019s making everything worse in every single way \u2014 I don\u2019t get it,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cI mean, I get it in a \u2018This makes sense to save money by not paying artists\u2019 way.\u2019 But then, what the fuck are we doing? Is this where we want to be?\u201d But even within Johnson\u2019s circle of collaborators, there is clearly room for disagreement: Lyonne, who will remain attached as an exec producer on Poker Face should it find a home (though her role will be recast), was announced as a co-founder of an AI production company this year. Either way, the Internet can rest assured T-Street\u2019s backing of Gordon-Levitt\u2019s next directorial effort, which is said to explore AI and star Rachel McAdams, does not equal an endorsement.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s always mentored me, and it feels like coming home,\u201d says Gordon-Levitt.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for right now, Johnson is trying to savor the moment. He\u2019s enjoying the awards trail \u2014 pockets around the world, like here in Savannah, where he can meet, bond and gossip with fellow filmmakers and speak frankly about the state of the medium he so treasures. On this round, he\u2019s enjoyed getting to know Celine Song (Materialists) and Nia DaCosta (Hedda). His friendship with del Toro, in the awards race with Frankenstein, has deepened: \u201cHe has really inspired me to make more connections. It\u2019s something that he puts a lot of value in. It\u2019s incredible, the energy that he has for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, Johnson traveled to Chicago for a 20th anniversary screening of Brick. He watched the movie all the way through, and memories came flooding back. The popping of the cheap champagne after the final evening of shooting on the beach. The debilitating illness that knocked him out for four of the 19 shooting days, \u201cto the point where in between takes I\u2019d be in a fetal position on a little cot off to the side.\u201d The Sundance premiere that set him on a life-changing path.<\/p>\n

\n\tGordon-Levitt has been thinking back to that time, too. He met a friend and collaborator for life, an artist with a vision he admired.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was very obvious that this was someone who had something special. However, even at that young age, I was cynical enough to not necessarily think that that\u2019d translate into a widely recognized success story,\u201d Gordon-Levitt says. \u201cIt is reaffirming to see that, sometimes, the good guys win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Nov. 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an unusually chilly November evening in Savannah, Georgia, but you can feel the heat of the crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,217,494,495,86206],"class_list":["post-305671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-netflix","tag-poker-face","tag-rian-johnson","tag-wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}