Director Rian Johnson Says He Avoids Writing the Murder Mystery Part of His KNIVES OUT Films Until He Just Can't Anymore

Writer and director Rian Johnson has hit his stride in making the murder mystery film anthology that began with Knives Out. The second film, Glass Onion, followed the recipe of the first with a star-studded cast, a picturesque locale, and a great story that kept fans guessing.

The third film is headed our way in just weeks, and Johnson says he followed suit from the previous films, but his formula may seem surprising to fans.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, Johnson explained that he doesn’t start with the murder mystery element, but he builds to it:

"I avoid writing [the murder mystery part] until I can't anymore, most glibly. I don't really start at the end or the beginning; I start zoomed out. I start with the most fundamental basics; I knew I wanted to do a locked-door mystery with this one.

'‘But the bigger aspect of all that is just what makes any other movie work; who's the protagonist? What do they want? Why can't they get it? What is the movie about, and how does that serve the theme?

‘You kind of build the mystery around that, because the mystery you can kind of construct like a crossword puzzle – but the basic line of what the movie is about is what's actually going to support it for an audience."

Swapping Glass Onion's sun-drenched Greek island for a cloud-covered parish church in upstate New York, Wake Up Dead Man, the upcoming third installment in the Knives Out franchise, sees Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) faced with his most complicated case yet.

Taking inspirations from the works of John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Allan Poe, it centers on Josh O'Connor's Jud Duplenticy, a young boxer-turned-priest who's transferred to the seemingly snoozy town after a violent altercation with one of his superiors.

There, he quickly clashes with Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), whose cruel, heavy-handed ways of shepherding Our Lady of Perpetual Grace's troubled but morally questionable locals rubs Jud up the wrong way.

He doesn't do well to hide his disdain, either, often trying to bring up the flaws in his practices to Wicks' faithful flock. So when Wicks winds up dead in the most head-scratching of ways, Jud immediately becomes the main suspect, forcing him to team-up with proud atheist Blanc to uncover the truth and prove his proclaimed innocence.

The cast also includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery releases in cinemas on November 26, arriving on Netflix worldwide on December 12.