Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out 3’ Starring Daniel Craig Begins Filming Later This Year With Potential 2025 Release Date

After the success of “Knives Out,” writer/director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig decided to turn the mature whodunnit comedy into a string of films with it landing at streaming giant Netflix. Their original deal would be for two sequels with “Glass Onion” being that second film and a third untitled pic would be made to round out a trilogy. There is a big update on “Knives Out 3” (Won’t be the actual title) as filming is aiming to start up real soon.

A new report from Deadline focusing on Johnson’s production company, T-Street, revealed that the untitled third installment in the “Knives Out” trilogy is said to be shooting later this year. We could easily speculate that this update means there is a great shot it will be ready to be released on Netflix in 2025.

Of course, the bigger aspect of these sequels is trying to suggest and figure out who will be part of the lineup of actors Johnson will select to become the latest group of murder suspects.

One of the more interesting aspects of “Glass Onion” was the reveal in the opening act that Hugh Grant (“The Gentlemen”) plays Benoit Blanc’s (Craig) husband and easily could be making a return in a bigger role for this third installment. Also, exploring that relationship as Blanc seemed to have been spending an extended period of time in the bathtub playing video games and reading stacks of books during the lockdown era of the COVID pandemic.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

‘Knives Out 2’: Dave Bautista Reunites With Daniel Craig For Rian Johnson’s Murder Mystery Sequel

Rian Johnson is looking to turn his wonderful comedic murder mystery film Knives Out into a full-fledged franchise and has partnered with Netflix to make that happen. A historical deal worth upwards of $400 million was made back in March that would see both Rian Johnson and lead actor Daniel Craig make $100 million each. The hefty deal includes the next two installments that are yet-to-be-titled and I assume if they want to do more Netflix will be all-ears.

We won’t have to wait too long before getting our hands on Knives Out 2 as filming is reportedly set to begin in Greece starting in late June.

Deadline is reporting that Daniel’s Spectre co-star Dave Bautista has landed an undisclosed role in the sequel and we’ll be excited to find out what his character will be. I’m going to lean towards fellow detective but there are likely less obvious choices as well. There is an expectation Knives Out 2 will focus on an entirely new group of characters excluding Craig’s southern detective Benoit Blanc and the Greece setting during a summer shoot will likely be a fantastic visual contrast to the original movie.

Dave Bautista’s upcoming projects includes Zack Snyder’s Army of The Dead and will be reprising the Drax role for James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3. Hopefully, he’ll be able to showcase his comedic chops in Knives Out 2 as he’s been known to be extremely assuming when given the chance.

It’ll be interesting to see if Rian will cast other former co-stars of Daniel Craig in various roles. Personally, I’ll be rooting for Casino Royale’s Eva Green to show up and give us another fantastic femme fatale.

KNIVES OUT – The circumstances surrounding the death of crime novelist Harlan Thrombey are mysterious, but there’s one thing that renowned Detective Benoit Blanc knows for sure — everyone in the wildly dysfunctional Thrombey family is a suspect. Now, Blanc must sift through a web of lies and red herrings to uncover the truth.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Netflix Shelling-Out $450M For Rian Johnson’s Next Two ‘Knives Out’ Sequels Starring Daniel Craig As Benoit Blanc

Earlier in the week it was announced via a report from Deadline that Netflix was looking to finance and secure the next two Knives Out sequels from writer/director Rian Johnson. The untitled sequels will see Daniel Craig reprise the role of Southern crime novelist/detective Benoit Blanc. The character is a take on Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mixed with Jessica Fletcher from the series Murder, She Wrote.

The streaming giant was said to be looking spend $400 million on the two films with Variety stating in their own write-up that the number is actually closer to $450 million. The number likely has to do with the original film earning an impressive $311.4 million at the international box office on a modest budget of $40 million, Netflix seeing the value in having the next two films being part of their originals lineup.

Knives Out originally was at MRC and distributed by Lionsgate, however, the companies didn’t make deals for potential sequels leaving the door open for Amazon, Apple, and Netflix to compete for the rights. Netflix seemingly landing them.

Filming on the second installment isn’t far away as Deadline says that production is set to begin this June 28, 2021 in Greece. The location moving out of the United States could allow for international cast and fans of the originally are dying to see what actors Johnson ends up hiring as there is expectations for another large cast.

The Benoit Blanc role could be a huge deal for Daniel Craig trying to get away from the shadow of the James Bond franchise as he’ll be exiting after the release of No Time To Die. It would be nice if Craig was able to have his character Benoit Blanc as notable to his career as Bond. The only way that is going to happen is if these next two films knock it out of the park.

KNIVES OUT – The circumstances surrounding the death of crime novelist Harlan Thrombey are mysterious, but there’s one thing that renowned Detective Benoit Blanc knows for sure — everyone in the wildly dysfunctional Thrombey family is a suspect. Now, Blanc must sift through a web of lies and red herrings to uncover the truth.

SOURCE: DEADLINE & VARIETY