Some of these feel very against-type in a very fresh way. The fact that you have a rich gathering of suspects, and the fact that those suspects are going to be a diverse group from the high to the low of shows what a microcosm of society’s power structures is. Inevitably, some cast members rise to the top: Colette’s fluttering, moon-juiced Jodi deserves her own Goop-sponsored sequel, or at least a half-hour pilot on Bravo. I figured whoever I would find, I would collaborate with to find the eccentricities. We’re all very familiar with that. © Copyright 2020 Meredith Corporation. I had that for a long, long time. When Daniel ended up playing the part, we got into it. 30 essential albums from the last 30 years, Chris Evans raving about Toni Collette in, Watch the first trailer for Rian Johnson’s star-studded murder mystery. You weave between these two conventions and, in many ways, honor them. Brazil?) Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. I’m broadly interested in your casting philosophy, from sketching these characters out to bringing them to life.First and foremost, trying to get great actors who are going to play the parts well. A movie has to be a rollercoaster ride. You don’t need to plant red herrings! Did you find as you got deeper into the script, these ideas started crystallizing? No, Paraguay! That was done very purposefully on my part, to shore up and protect against the possibility that some people are going to figure it out because they’re smarter than me. “There’s a lot that has to happen: First and foremost, I have to write a script that’s worth a damn, so we’ll see,” said Johnson, an Oscar nominee for the Knives Out screenplay. I’ve used the analogy before that writing is like when the generals are in the war-room, with maps spread out on the table, making their grand plans, and then when you’re directing, you’re actually in the trenches with the troops, trying to actually make it work. 'Knives Out' Cast & Director Roundtable: Chris Evans, Daniel Craig & More | Entertainment Weekly Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Michael Shannon, Anna de Armas, Don Johnson, Jaeden Martell and Rian Johnson of Knives Out … "If he writes something, I’ll do it.". The exact who of the dunnit, when it finally comes, is unabashedly corny but satisfying, too; a callback to all the classic wrap-ups of the genre, with a pitch-perfect, thoroughly modern final shot on par with that of one of the other great black comedies of this year, Ready or Not. The notion of doing a whodunit that begins as a traditional whodunit and orients the audience very clearly, and then turns into a Hitchcock thriller where there’s a character you care about — you’re leaning forward as opposed to leaning back. Rian Johnson's 'Knives Out' is a silly, stabby, supremely clever whodunnit with a cast that includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, and more. If he writes something, I’ll do it. Even the payoff at the end: The really satisfying payoff at the end is not the reveal of whodunit; it comes after that. Knives Out hits theaters Wednesday. In that way, I tried to make a deft film with lots of information in it, but in truth, I tried to play it straight and serve the story, and leave the audience to misdirect themselves. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Daniel Craig might be done with James Bond, but he's open to a sequel to the comedy-thriller 'Knives Out,' where he plays detective Benoit Blanc. The first idea was a very conceptual one: As I thought about doing a whodunit, I thought about Hitchcock and his opinion of whodunits. That giddiness doesn’t necessarily translate, though, to the common people on the other side of the screen. Then turns back into a whodunit at the end and reveals it’s been a whodunit the whole time; the thriller element was a whole bit of misdirection. Daniel had grown up watching those movies as well, so he knew what I was talking about.