Why ‘Glass Onion’ scared Rian Johnson more than ‘Last Jedi’ – Los Angeles Times

One of the undisputed hits of this years Toronto International Film Festival has been writer-director Rian Johnsons Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Full of surprise cameos, with a story in which who gets killed is as much a part of the mystery and excitement as whodunit, the movie is the follow-up to Johnsons 2019 Knives Out, which made more than $300 million worldwide and earned him an original screenplay Oscar nomination. Dont worry: The films revelations will be kept safe here. What can be safely said about Glass Onion is that it involves a tech billionaire who invites a group of old friends and colleagues to his private island for a weekend murder mystery party, and that his plans quickly go off-course.

The cast includes Daniel Craig, returning as detective Benoit Blanc, along with new additions Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline and Janelle Mone. Shot at a luxury resort in Greece, with soundstage work done in Belgrade, Serbia, the films exquisite attention to detail comes from longtime Johnson collaborators including cinematographer Steve Yedlin, editor Bob Ducsay, composer (and cousin) Nathan Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi production designer Rick Heinrichs and Knives Out costume designer Jenny Eagan.

As much as the movie draws from crime fiction, it also pulls from a wellspring of other cinematic references, such as Guy Hamiltons 1982 Evil Under the Sun, starring Peter Ustinov as Agatha Christies detective Hercule Poirot, and Herbert Ross 1973 The Last of Sheila. (That films co-writer, Stephen Sondheim, has a brief cameo in Glass Onion filmed before his death in November 2021.)

Last of Sheila is the cooler reference, said Johnson, but the reality is theres probably a lot more of Evil Under the Sun in this movie.

The movie will begin streaming on Netflix on Dec. 23, with a theatrical release still to be announced. (More on that below.) The filmmaker sat down for a conversation the morning after the films raucous Saturday night world premiere, where most of the cast was in attendance.

The cast hadnt seen the movie yet, and so for them to experience it for the first time with a crowd like that it made me feel good that they felt really good, Johnson said.

The star-studded cast of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery includes Kate Hudson, left, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Edward Norton, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline and Dave Bautista.

(John Wilson / Netflix)

You obviously have some experience with writing a sequel from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Did you approach this in the same way?

Rian Johnson: No, its a very different animal for a couple reasons. First of all, Last Jedi was actually a proper sequel, continuing the events from a movie that I didnt write. With this, first of all, its not even really a sequel, its kind of like another book, basically another mystery with the same detective. If anything, going into it was a little scarier even than the Star Wars movie, because the first one, when we made it, it was in such a vacuum and we had no idea if people would be into this kind of thing. Genuinely, it was just something that I really loved, a genre I loved, and Im like, Lets try this.

And then the fact that people enjoyed it and the fact that it was popular when you put something out there, this happens anyway, but especially, I think, in this case it becomes something outside of you and you kind of forget how you made it. And so, it was scary. Ive never experienced nerves quite like actually sitting down to write something. I also spent 10 years planning Knives Out, whereas this, I was kind of starting from scratch.

The fact that this movie is so specifically set in 2020 in the early pandemic really emphasizes that both of the movies are set in our modern day. This isnt a quaint, retro thing. Why is that important to you?

Johnson: I think this is the case with a lot of genre stuff, and in a way that was the same thing that kicked me off with my first film Brick, reading Dashiell Hammett and feeling like I was getting kicked in the stomach by that prose and feeling like over time the idea of film noir had become sort of gilded, separated from that very immediate gut-punch reaction that you get from just those raw words. And wanting to do something that didnt reinvent it but that got back to the vitality of it by shaking off the nostalgia thats attached to it.

The way to do that with the whodunit is to just set it in modern-day America, to very brazenly engage with whats going on right now with America. Not that these are incredibly nuanced message movies or commentaries at all. Theyre big, popular entertainments, but part of it is not shying away from, Yes, this is set right here and right now, and were gonna be talking about stuff were talking about right now. Thats what Agatha Christie did back in the day. She wasnt writing period pieces.

You seem to take particular pleasure in writing the character of Benoit Blanc. Why do you enjoy writing for that character so much?

Johnson: When I wrote the first one, I didnt know who was going to play him. I really didnt know what the character was going to be like, oddly. I started writing and I think I had it in my head, Lets create a new, iconic Poirot. And I manufactured all these quirks and it got terrible. And so I finally just cleaned it all out and said, Im just going to write this guy to his purpose in the script and give him a Southern accent and well get a great actor in there and then itll kind of define itself as we make it.

I heard Daniel talking about how he had to almost relearn the accent because he didnt want to do a caricature of it. So he kind of started from scratch and I sort of had to do the same thing with Blanc. I didnt want to write a pastiche of what Blanc is in my head from now having seen the first film so many times. ... And this movie is much more from his perspective than the previous movie, which was also fun.

Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

(Netflix)

One thing I have come to appreciate and admire in your work is your willingness to be silly. You take what you do seriously, but you still can be playful and have fun with it. Where does that come from?

Johnson: Im a deeply silly person. All my favorite filmmakers have a streak of silliness running through their stuff. Even filmmakers who make incredibly serious work sometimes, the Coen brothers or Kubrick anyone whose work is worth a damn is not afraid of silliness. But particularly with this genre, because of my touchstones with it, the element of silliness to Poirot is essential to what makes that character tick. And also, by the way, using it as a narrative tool. Silliness is a way to disarm. For Blanc to disarm the other characters but also to disarm the audience. When youre planting a thousand things and youre trying to make them stick in the audiences mind without realizing that its something thats going to be important later, so it doesnt stand out if you can do that with a joke, [it] feels like the reason Im telling this information is because theres a punchline at the end. The reality is its going to pay off at the end of the movie. Thats incredibly helpful, just from a technical standpoint.

Your deal with Netflix was reported as being for two movies, and after the premiere your producer Ram Bergman confirmed that there will be a second movie. Are you already at work on that? Are you already writing?

Johnson: Im not writing yet, but the gears are starting to turn. Well see what happens. I had initially thought, Boy, I should probably go and do something else before I do the third one of these, but Ill tell you the truth, Im just so creatively jazzed by the prospect of what the third one can be. And also the idea of doing a third one that really defines what this series can be, in terms of how the third one could be as different from this one as this one is from Knives Out. That can truly kind of prove this is something that can keep going for a while and not get stale.

Will you and The White Lotus be competing for luxury resorts around the world?

Johnson: Thats the fun thing for me, is theres no reason the next one couldnt suck back in and be a chamber piece again. Thats what Agatha Christie did. She would go big, she would go small. It wasnt about the scale. It wasnt about the scope or the setting. It was about finding a fun, unique narrative gambit each time and finding a new thing to talk about with each new story.

You said at the premiere that you see these very much as movies, and part of the fun of a movie for you is seeing it with a big crowd. Is that contradictory to Netflixs strategy?

Johnson: I cant speak to Netflixs strategy, but its not contradictory to what I want with the release. I want as many people as possible to see this with a crowd. I also am very aware more people probably discovered [Knives Out] at home with their family than saw it in the theater the first time. ... Were working on it. Were figuring something out. But my goal is if you want to see this in the theater, youll be able to see it in the theater.

Since you made the deal with the company and since youve been working with them, has your perspective on windowing and what a theatrical release can look like changed at all? Have you learned anything from them?

Johnson: I feel like right now everybody is just running on top of the avalanche. Nobody knows s. Theres lots of information that everybody has right now about what works and what doesnt. And at the end of the day, I think what works is a good movie that people want to go see. Im either pessimistic or optimistic depending how you define it, where I just feel like the industry has been in a state of collapse since its inception. ... It just feels like its a constant state of affairs. Its constantly reinventing and finding itself. I believe that the theatrical experience isnt going anywhere, it is coming back. And I believe its a vital part of what makes movies, movies.

I spoke to you before the premiere of Knives Out here at Toronto and at the time I asked you about the fact that the movie was premiering at the festival and opening in November. It was scheduled like an Oscar movie, and you laughed and were dismissive about that idea.

Johnson: Get ready for me to laugh again. History is repeating itself.

Then you were nominated for an Oscar and now this movie has some expectations even some of the press out of the premiere had to do with its awards chances. Do you feel any kind of pressure in that regard? Are your feelings different this time because of what happened with the previous movie?

Johnson: No, zero percent. It was an incredibly fantastic, amazing honor and surprise to get that nomination last time. But thats not the prize that we have our eye on with these movies. We make these movies as popular entertainments. The only thing that were gunning for when we make these things is to give an audience a good time. I dont think of these as awards movies.

Original post:
Why 'Glass Onion' scared Rian Johnson more than 'Last Jedi' - Los Angeles Times

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero