Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery<\/strong>\u201d follows in this tradition, while turning the lens inward to explore the nature of belief. \u201cThis film charts [Blanc\u2019s] most personal journey yet,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cHe\u2019s forced to engage with the case \u2014 and with himself \u2014 in a way that\u2019s completely new.\u201d<\/p>\nJohnson\u2019s latest film\u00a0brings Blanc to a small hamlet in leafy upstate New York, where eager young priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O\u2019Connor) has been sent to assist the local priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). A charismatic firebrand, Wicks tends to a flock that includes\u00a0Martha 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).<\/p>\n
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\u00a0as Blanc puts it, \u201cThis was dressed as a miracle, it\u2019s just a murder. And I solve murders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The religious setting offered rich soil for a murder mystery to take root. \u201cThemes 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,\u201d Johnson explains.\u00a0\u201cI have strong feelings about faith: both my own personal experience and how it intersects with our country\u2019s cultural and civic life, and the ways that intersection touches all of us differently. So it felt like rich ground for a good story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the ultra-contemporary \u201dGlass Onion<\/strong>\u201d, \u201dWake Up Dead Man<\/strong>\u201d is a return to form for Johnson, a film that hearkens back to the literary lineage of the murder mystery. \u201cIt\u2019s more similar to the first\u00a0Knives Out\u00a0in that it gets back to the real origins of the genre, which predate Agatha Christie, going back to Edgar Allan Poe,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s still a Benoit Blanc mystery, so it\u2019s funny and fun, but it\u2019s set in an old stone church, there are lots of graveyards.\u201d Johnson describes the look as \u201cgothic\u201d and the tone as \u201cgrounded,\u201d with most of the film\u2019s drama unraveling in a cavernous chapel built by production designer Rick Heinrichs. Steve Yedlin\u2019s chiaroscuro cinematography, paired with Nathan Johnson\u2019s haunting score, Jenny Eagan\u2019s spot-on costuming, and Bob Ducsay\u2019s nimble editing, only heighten the film\u2019s atmospheric tone.\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<\/ins>\nCraig, who plays the only recurring main character across the three films, applauds Johnson\u2019s ability to metabolize the genre\u2019s devices for the modern day. \u201cWhat Rian\u2019s movies do best,\u201d Craig says, \u201cis subvert the genre. You start off thinking you\u2019re watching an old-fashioned sort of Agatha Christie-type mystery \u2014 but then it shifts, and you realize you\u2019re watching something entirely different.\u201d This approach is part of why Johnson\u2019s films have earned such commercial and critical success: Knives Out was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2020, with Glass Onion\u00a0earning its own nod in the Adapted Screenplay category in 2023.<\/p>\n
Naturally, many of today\u2019s most renowned performers jumped at the opportunity to join \u201dWake Up Dead Man<\/strong>\u201d, and casting directors Mary Vernieu and Bret Howe helped assemble another starry group. \u201cEvery single day on set with this ensemble, I would blink and be astounded that we talked these people into showing up,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\nBlanc enters \u201dWake Up Dead Man<\/strong>\u201d as an outsider to the narrative\u2019s emotional core, with another character emerging from the shadows to share his spotlight. \u201cThe secret to each one of these movies is that Benoit Blanc is not the main character of these films. There\u2019s always a protagonist who has some real stakes and skin in the game,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cJosh\u2019s character Jud is that character in this movie.\u201d<\/p>\nO\u2019Connor weathers Jud\u2019s crisis of faith and the biblical highs and lows of the story with a sense of grace and compassion. \u201cHe\u2019s a sensational filmmaker,\u201d the actor says of Johnson. \u201cWhat\u2019s surprising to me always is when a brilliant director is also a brilliant writer, because to me, they\u2019re very different skill sets. Rian has both, and he\u2019s very funny, very smart, deeply kind, and patient. It\u2019s really rare what he has.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dWake Up Dead Man<\/strong>\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<\/ins>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9Courtesy of Netflix Every Benoit Blanc mystery from Academy Award\u2013nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson imparts its own revelation; each tale offers a fresh gospel of intrigue. 2019\u2019s\u00a0Knives Out\u00a0introduces the suited detective (played by Daniel Craig) at a cozy New England mansion, where a family\u2019s greed boils over in the wake of its patriarch\u2019s mysterious death. Its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,20471],"tags":[28288,1504,11764,3542,1445,4005,14637,92,9517],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery : Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet. Sequel to 'Glass Onion (2022)'.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery : Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet. Sequel to 'Glass Onion (2022)'.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-04T18:41:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"345\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nobuhiro Hosoki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nobuhiro Hosoki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374\",\"name\":\"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-04T18:41:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-04T18:41:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a39aff30168e5736b19e3486a7747bd3\"},\"description\":\"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery : Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet. Sequel to 'Glass Onion (2022)'.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":345,\"caption\":\"Wake Up Dead Man A Knives Out Mystery\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Daily US\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a39aff30168e5736b19e3486a7747bd3\",\"name\":\"Nobuhiro Hosoki\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Nobuhiro-Hosoki-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Nobuhiro-Hosoki-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Nobuhiro Hosoki\"},\"description\":\"Nobuhiro Hosoki grew up watching American films since he was a kid; he decided to go to the United States thanks to seeing the artistry of Stanley Kubrick's \\\"A Clockwork Orange.\u201d After graduating from film school, he worked as an assistant director on TV Tokyo\u2019s program called \\\"Morning Satellite\\\" at the New York branch office but he didn\u2019t give up on his interest in cinema. He became a film reporter for via Yahoo Japan News. In that role, he writes news articles, picks out headliners for Yahoo News, as well as interviewing Hollywood film directors, actors, and producers working in the domestic circuit in the USA. He also does production interviews for Japanese distributors of American films and for in-theater on-sale programs. He is now the editor-in-chief of Cinemadailyus.com while continuing his work for Japan.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release","description":"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery : Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet. Sequel to 'Glass Onion (2022)'.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release","og_description":"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery : Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet. Sequel to 'Glass Onion (2022)'.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2025-09-04T18:41:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":345,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Nobuhiro Hosoki","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nobuhiro Hosoki","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374","name":"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png","datePublished":"2025-09-04T18:41:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-04T18:41:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a39aff30168e5736b19e3486a7747bd3"},"description":"Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery : Benoit Blanc returns for his most dangerous case yet. Sequel to 'Glass Onion (2022)'.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Wake-Up-Dead-Man-A-Knives-Out-Mystery.png","width":640,"height":345,"caption":"Wake Up Dead Man A Knives Out Mystery"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31374#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Release"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a39aff30168e5736b19e3486a7747bd3","name":"Nobuhiro Hosoki","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Nobuhiro-Hosoki-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Nobuhiro-Hosoki-150x150.jpg","caption":"Nobuhiro Hosoki"},"description":"Nobuhiro Hosoki grew up watching American films since he was a kid; he decided to go to the United States thanks to seeing the artistry of Stanley Kubrick's \"A Clockwork Orange.\u201d After graduating from film school, he worked as an assistant director on TV Tokyo\u2019s program called \"Morning Satellite\" at the New York branch office but he didn\u2019t give up on his interest in cinema. He became a film reporter for via Yahoo Japan News. In that role, he writes news articles, picks out headliners for Yahoo News, as well as interviewing Hollywood film directors, actors, and producers working in the domestic circuit in the USA. He also does production interviews for Japanese distributors of American films and for in-theater on-sale programs. He is now the editor-in-chief of Cinemadailyus.com while continuing his work for Japan.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}