When it was first announced, Knives Out was originally treated like simply a fun film for Daniel Craig thing to do while the next Bond film, No Time to Die, found a new director. But it proved far more than that. An enjoyably retro mystery and an enjoyably eccentric follow-up to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, it was a box office smash that also allowed Craig, the most serious of the big screen 007s, to have some fun, solve a convoluted murder, do his finest Foghorn Leghorn accent. Like any good whodunnit it begged for a sequel, possibly with Craig switching accents. And now it’s getting at least two.
Netflix is forking over a ridiculous amount of money for Knives Out 2 and 3. How much? $400 million, says Deadline, though Variety is reporting $450 million. Whichever the number, it’s a lot for movies which find our snooping hero largely sitting in rooms with a who’s who ensemble, each of them a potential homicidal maniac. Mind you, this is not the budget of either of them; it’s just for the rights to make two more adventures with Craig’s amateur sleuth Benoit Blanc.
Johnson envisioned the first Knives Out as his homage to classic murder mysteries, like the many, many novels of Agatha Christie, particularly the ones revolving around crime-solvers Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. The latter is already the subject of his own big screen franchise, starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh, so maybe it’s time to resurrect France’s Inspector Maigret? In the meanwhile, two more Knives Out sequels means Johnson is swimming in crime: It was recently announced that he was teaming with Natasha Lyonne for a murder mystery show that sounds like the Columbo reboot we all deserve.