After two years of being trolled by Star Wars fans for supposedly ruining the franchise with the controversial The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson returned to multiplexes with a vengeance to prove he’s still the promising new filmmaker who wrote and directed Brick and Looper with Knives Out, the best whodunit in years.
Rather than building towards one big twist, Knives Out is an onion of mystery whose layers are slowly peeled back by Johnson’s Oscar-nominated script. According to Lionsgate, an ensuing franchise centered around Benoit Blanc is in development. Here are 10 behind-the-scenes details from the making of Knives Out.
Rian Johnson First Got The Idea In 2005
Rian Johnson got the initial concept for Knives Out as far back as 2005, after completing his debut feature film, Brick. He first brought it up publicly in 2010, when he told the Independent that he would be interested in writing and directing an Agatha Christie-style whodunit after finishing his then-current project, 2012’s Looper.
However, after Looper, he was signed on to direct the eighth chapter of Star Wars’ Skywalker saga. After finishing the press tour for The Last Jedi, Johnson began Knives Out’s seven-month writing process.
Ransom’s “Eat S***!” Scene Originally Had Him Saying, “F*** You!”
In one of Knives Out’s funniest scenes, Ransom goes around the room, telling each member of his family to “Eat sh*t!” In the original script, he said, “F*ck you!” to everyone in his family. However, it was changed when Rian Johnson decided he wanted the movie to be rated PG-13. This meant that he had to remove a bunch of other F-bombs from the script. It was actually Chris Evans himself who came up with “Eat sh*t!”
Johnson had originally envisioned Harlan’s throat-slashing suicide to be an explosive, cinematic splash of red filling the screen. However, the MPAA deemed this too graphic for a PG-13 rating, so he had to cut it.
Daniel Craig Based His Southern Accent On Shelby Foote
In the script for Knives Out, Rian Johnson wrote that Benoit Blanc had a subtle Southern accent. However, when Daniel Craig was researching Southern accents, he became taken with the “Kentucky fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl” of historian Shelby Foote.
Johnson conceived Blanc as an American Poirot, and the fact that he’s played by a British actor is in keeping with the tradition that the actual Poirot, who is Belgian, is usually played by a British actor: Albert Finney, Kenneth Branagh, David Suchet, Peter Ustinov etc.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Has A Brief Cameo Appearance
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rian Johnson go way back. Gordon-Levitt has appeared in all five of Johnson’s movies, including a vocal cameo as Slowen Lo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
In Knives Out, he has another cameo appearance, this time as the detective heard in the crime series that Marta’s sister is watching on TV. In the credits, Gordon-Levitt is credited as playing “Detective Hardrock.”
Some Of The Characters Are Named After ‘70s Musicians
Rian Johnson named a lot of the main characters in Knives Out after musicians from the ‘70s in an attempt to help him remember all their names while he was writing. The names Linda and Richard were taken from Linda and Richard Thompson. The names Walt and Donna were taken from Walter Becker and Donald Fagen from Steely Dan. The name Joni was taken from Joni Mitchell, and her dead husband Neil’s name was taken from Neil Young.
The name Harlan Thrombey, alternatively, is a possible homage to Edward Packard’s whodunit “Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?” from the popular Choose Your Own Adventure book series from the ‘80s.
Rian Johnson’s Cousin Composed The Score
Although Knives Out was named after a Radiohead song, the musical score for the film was composed by writer-director Rian Johnson’s cousin, Nathan Johnson. Nathan Johnson has composed the score for his cousin’s previous films Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper.
The only Rian Johnson film that Nathan Johnson didn’t score was Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was scored by John Williams, for obvious reasons. The score was released by Cut Narrative Records on November 27, 2019, the same date that the film hit theaters.
Creating The Reflections In Characters’ Glasses Required Carefully Sculpted Mattes
One of the most widely circulated behind-the-scenes details from Knives Out involves key grip Matt Mania. The movie required a number of closeups of characters wearing glasses, and the reflections in their lenses didn’t always line up with the other shots.
So, the key grip carefully sculpted a series of mattes to influence the lighting and make the reflections look more consistent and realistic.
M. Emmet Walsh Replaced Ricky Jay After He Passed Away
Ricky Jay was initially cast to play the role that went to M. Emmet Walsh. Unfortunately, Jay passed away on November 24, 2018, which was midway through production on Knives Out. This necessitated a recasting, which is why Walsh was brought on board.
As a tribute to Jay, a black-and-white photograph of him was included in the film for a few seconds, just before Walsh makes his first on-screen appearance.
As A Liza Minnelli Fan, Daniel Craig Insisted On Using Her Version Of “Losing My Mind”
For the scene in which Blanc sings “Losing My Mind” while waiting in the car, Daniel Craig insisted that Rian Johnson use the version of the song sung by Liza Minnelli in collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys.
This was because Craig is a huge Liza Minnelli fan and wanted to honor her on the silver screen.
The Climactic Moment Is Foreshadowed Early On
Knives Out’s breathtaking climax sees Ransom grabbing a knife from the knife-laden chair and attacking Marta with it, only to find that it’s a prop knife. This was foreshadowed early, when Harlan mentions that Ransom’s laidback lifestyle means he can’t tell the difference between a real knife and a fake one.
This isn’t the only instance of foreshadowing that Rian Johnson hid in the script. When Ransom is reading over the blackmail note intended for Marta, a few copies of the New Yorker can be seen on the coffee table. Early in the movie, a New Yorker article on Blanc is mentioned. This is an early suggestion that Ransom is the one who hired Blanc.
