©Courtesy of Netflix
Every Benoit Blanc mystery from Academy Award–nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson imparts its own revelation; each tale offers a fresh gospel of intrigue. 2019’s Knives Out introduces the suited detective (played by Daniel Craig) at a cozy New England mansion, where a family’s greed boils over in the wake of its patriarch’s mysterious death. Its 2022 follow-up, ”Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, skewers tech-world excess with heightened comedy on a Greek island.
”Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” follows in this tradition, while turning the lens inward to explore the nature of belief. “This film charts [Blanc’s] most personal journey yet,” says Johnson. “He’s forced to engage with the case — and with himself — in a way that’s completely new.”
Johnson’s latest film brings Blanc to a small hamlet in leafy upstate New York, where eager young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) has been sent to assist the local priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). A charismatic firebrand, Wicks tends to a flock that includes Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church), Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), and Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny).
After a seemingly impossible murder rocks the town, local police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) joins forces with Blanc to unravel a mystery that pushes the boundaries of both faith and reason. But as Blanc puts it, “This was dressed as a miracle, it’s just a murder. And I solve murders.”
The religious setting offered rich soil for a murder mystery to take root. “Themes of guilt, mystery, morality, and fallible humanity all feel right at home in a church, with a man of God in the center of the mix,” Johnson explains. “I have strong feelings about faith: both my own personal experience and how it intersects with our country’s cultural and civic life, and the ways that intersection touches all of us differently. So it felt like rich ground for a good story.”
Following the ultra-contemporary ”Glass Onion”, ”Wake Up Dead Man” is a return to form for Johnson, a film that hearkens back to the literary lineage of the murder mystery. “It’s more similar to the first Knives Out in that it gets back to the real origins of the genre, which predate Agatha Christie, going back to Edgar Allan Poe,” Johnson says. “It’s still a Benoit Blanc mystery, so it’s funny and fun, but it’s set in an old stone church, there are lots of graveyards.” Johnson describes the look as “gothic” and the tone as “grounded,” with most of the film’s drama unraveling in a cavernous chapel built by production designer Rick Heinrichs. Steve Yedlin’s chiaroscuro cinematography, paired with Nathan Johnson’s haunting score, Jenny Eagan’s spot-on costuming, and Bob Ducsay’s nimble editing, only heighten the film’s atmospheric tone.
Craig, who plays the only recurring main character across the three films, applauds Johnson’s ability to metabolize the genre’s devices for the modern day. “What Rian’s movies do best,” Craig says, “is subvert the genre. You start off thinking you’re watching an old-fashioned sort of Agatha Christie-type mystery — but then it shifts, and you realize you’re watching something entirely different.” This approach is part of why Johnson’s films have earned such commercial and critical success: Knives Out was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2020, with Glass Onion earning its own nod in the Adapted Screenplay category in 2023.
Naturally, many of today’s most renowned performers jumped at the opportunity to join ”Wake Up Dead Man”, and casting directors Mary Vernieu and Bret Howe helped assemble another starry group. “Every single day on set with this ensemble, I would blink and be astounded that we talked these people into showing up,” says Johnson. “The experience of making these movies and the chemistry between these incredible actors is the key to why we love doing them. You get great actors together, you let them hang out, and games will ensue.”
Blanc enters ”Wake Up Dead Man” as an outsider to the narrative’s emotional core, with another character emerging from the shadows to share his spotlight. “The secret to each one of these movies is that Benoit Blanc is not the main character of these films. There’s always a protagonist who has some real stakes and skin in the game,” says Johnson. “Josh’s character Jud is that character in this movie.”
O’Connor weathers Jud’s crisis of faith and the biblical highs and lows of the story with a sense of grace and compassion. “He’s a sensational filmmaker,” the actor says of Johnson. “What’s surprising to me always is when a brilliant director is also a brilliant writer, because to me, they’re very different skill sets. Rian has both, and he’s very funny, very smart, deeply kind, and patient. It’s really rare what he has.”
”Wake Up Dead Man” will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6, and will open the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 8. The film will be in select theaters Nov. 26, and will debut on Netflix on Dec. 12.