In a new interview with Empire, writer/director Rian Johnson opened up about his new film, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. One detail jumps out in their conversation."This was definitely the hardest script I've ever written," he said.Coming from Johnson, who's written several mysteries, including two previous Knives Out stories, a sci-fi thriller in Looper, and indie darling Brick, that's saying something.And granted, mysteries are difficult. The crime needs to seem impossibly complex so that the hero, Benoit Blanc, seems impossibly smart as he solves the crime.Johnson has previously talked about mixing thriller and mystery elements to keep the audience engaged, saying, "The notion of doing a whodunit that begins as a traditional whodunit and orients the audience very clearly, and then turns into a Hitchcock thriller where there’s a character you care about — you’re leaning forward as opposed to leaning back. Then turns back into a whodunit at the end and reveals it’s been a whodunit the whole time; the thriller element was a whole bit of misdirection."So it seems like he has the structure down, and it turns out that's not what challenged him on Wake Up Dead Man. - YouTube www.youtube.com Why Wake Up Dead Man Was Difficult for JohnsonThe film follows Blanc investigating a murder in a church, where Josh Brolin's Monsignor Wicks is at odds with Josh O'Connor's Father Jud. For Johnson, these characters became a way to explore his own complicated relationship with Christianity. He grew up deeply religious, he said—not...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday