The biggest mystery of Rian Johnson’s ‘Knives Out’ movies? Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc

Over the course of the three films, Johnson and Daniel Craig meticulously provide clues about Blank’s past and personal life. Since Blank first introduced himself in “Knives Out” as “a respectful, quiet, passive observer… of the truth”, following the breadcrumbs has been a game in itself.

For example, there are vague, absurd references to cases he’s solved before: something with a tennis champion, something with a ballet dancer and, in the latest chapter, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”, we hear about some disgusting incident at the Kentucky Derby that he solved.

Blank has been profiled in The New Yorker and has been a guest on “The View.” It appears that he lives with Hugh Grant. He dislikes the board game Clue. After being caught singing Sondheim and humming “Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat” from “Cats” in the new song, we know he loves musical theater.

Throughout the “Knives Out” trilogy, Johnson and Craig have portrayed Blank with sporadic and comedic revelations, adding subtle and sometimes personal characteristics.

“I’m not as into musical theater as Ryan is,” says Craig, sitting next to his director in a recent interview.

“So he makes that claim in front of the microphone,” Johnson says.

Every “Knives Out” movie is a wholesale change. New setting. New case. New series of characters. But Craig and Johnson are mainstays. Together, they introduced Blank, the last of the gentleman detectives, to one of the greatest – “Halle Berry!” Has changed to. – Heroes of recent films.

In “Wake Up Dead Man,” which opens in theaters Wednesday and will be released on Netflix Dec. 12, Blank takes up the case of a gentleman who mysteriously dies in the middle of a church service. Among the film’s many joys – among them, Josh O’Connor’s co-lead performance as a priest under suspicion and a group of parishioners including Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner and Glenn Close – Craig continues to find new little wrinkles for Blank.

Rather than being set in stone, Blank has evolved. Get that tone. Johnson recalls that the first script described “a slight hint of Southern leanings”. But Craig, taking inspiration from Tennessee Williams and Shelby Foote, brought the accent closer to, as Chris Evans’ character says in “Knives Out”: a “Kentucky-fried foghorn leghorn drawl.” In “Glass Onion”, he laid it on even thicker, part of a plan revealed later in the film.

“My biggest fear was that it would grow,” Craig says, laughing. “If it ever gets weird, it’s like, ‘Whoa, let’s get out of here.’ Lord knows I’m not comparing myself to Gene Wilder, but the way Gene Wilder did comedy was: It’s all through truth. As long as you’re being as truthful as possible in that situation, the joke comes across.”

Craig almost missed out on Benoit Blanc, despite being well established in his role. Craig was initially unavailable for “Knives Out” due to the production of “No Time to Die”. Johnson looked for other potential actors.

Johnson says, “Literally five weeks later we were shooting. We didn’t think you were available.” “Then something happened that suddenly you guys were delayed by three months and we had a window.”

“I read it and I was shocked that someone would send it to me,” says Craig. “So happy. I saw it from the beginning. I read it and I imagined it. It’s a testament to his writing. I mean, come on. Benoit Blanc.”

In creating the role, Craig took inspiration from the debonair debonairness of Jacques Tati, but channeled the flamboyant style of Monsieur Hulot and Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”. He searched through obsolete books in the southern language.

Additionally, Craig has improved on some of Blank’s best expressions. In “Wake Up Dead Man”, he suddenly blurts out, as if shaken by the swelling whodunit hijinks: “Scooby dooby doo!” A sip of hot sauce sponsored by Jeremy Renner in “Glass Onion” followed by the infamous “Halle Berry!”

“All the best lines in them are things Daniel just came up with,” Johnson says. “He says, ‘What about this?’ And I start laughing. And this is the best line of the film.

Craig says of the derivation of “Halle Berry”, “I have a security team and a guy who says it.” “I stole it. I said, ‘Can I have that?’ And he said ‘yes.’

For Craig and Johnson, blanks have been an ongoing conversation. “Wake Up Dead Man”, the most serious of the three mysteries, deals significantly with matters of faith and religion. Both served to sharpen Blank’s vision. In the film, he declares himself “a proud heretic. I kneel at the altar of the rational.”

Then the dialogue for Blank is Johnson Penn’s ornate flourishes. Based on Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, Blank is a well-known product of a rich literary tradition that has been dusted off for modern times. Among contemporary satires, Blank Retro is the lynchpin.

This means Craig delivers lines like “I suspect foul play” in front of a fireplace, and vows to uncover “what this pack of evil wolves is hiding” while framed in a stained glass window.

“Delicious,” Craig says with a smile.

It’s ironic that, based on their experiences with the iconic film series, Johnson and Craig have created a franchise of their own. Johnson released “Knives Out” two years after the much-hyped “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Stepping out of the James Bond films, Craig takes on the guise of yet another justice-seeker, albeit a justice-seeker very different swimwear,

“I don’t think any of us really thought about it that way,” Johnson says. “It’s just making movies one after the other, just trying to keep it challenging and fresh for myself. It almost seems accidental that we suddenly made three movies. It was definitely, God forbid, the dirtiest word in the universe, not setting out to make IP. We’re just trying to make movies.”

“I’ve been doing this long enough that as soon as you start counting your chickens on the job, everything goes over,” says Craig.

Yet it’s possible now, especially as the two are considering a fourth “Knives Out” film, that there are younger moviegoers who know Craig more as Benoit Blanc than that other B-name. If Johnson and Craig continue with “Knives Out,” even if the two-film deal with Netflix expires, it would give Johnson a chance to replenish his whodunit wardrobe. But it will certainly provide an opportunity to launch Blank again and play with it.

Johnson says, “I really like my mysterious detectives to be mysterious. It obviously doesn’t work when you start digging into the back story with the detective.” “It’s always kind of boring because the character is only revealed through action and a detective’s action is a very strong thing. He’s there to solve the case.”

In some ways, Blank is like a movie star. He turns up, gets dazzled and goes home to his unseen personal life. Craig likes it that way.

“Going back to ‘Death on the Nile’ and ‘Evil Under the Sun,’ Petey shows up somewhere spectacular – who knows where, some party in the south of France,” says Craig. “And at the end he leaves and goes somewhere. He’s kind of isolated from the rest. He has to do that because he’s this guy who suspects everyone.”

Every few years, Benoit Blanc comes and goes. Everything in between is a puzzle.

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