Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
More On:
Netflix
-
'Bad Boys Ride or Die' Comes To Digital, But When Will 'Bad Boys 4' Be Streaming on Netflix?
-
'Land Of Bad' Solidifies Russell Crowe As A Netflix King — Without Making Any Actual Netflix Movies
-
What the 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' After Credits Scene Might Mean For a 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' Sequel
-
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ on Netflix, an Exhumation of Past Franchise Glories
Netflix is building on the 2019 Oscar-nominated mystery Knives Out with a massive new deal. Deadline reports that the streamer is paying over $400 million for the rights to two Knives Out sequels, which will both bring back director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig, who played detective Benoit Blanc in the original movie. Johnson, who also wrote the screenplay for the first film, wrote both of the sequels, too.
The first Knives Out film was acquired by Media Rights Capital in a single picture deal and later distributed by Lionsgate. While it only had a $40 million budget, Knives Out was a smash success, raking in $311 million globally. Now, with two sequels locked in at Netflix, the streamer has their own film franchise.
Knives Out, which first hit theaters in fall 2019, centers around the mysterious death of novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Blanc is called in to help solve the case, in which every family member is seen as a suspect. The film also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, and Lakeith Stanfield.
With the expansion of the Knives Out universe, Craig is getting a second franchise just as his run as James Bond wraps up with No Time to Die, the long-delayed film set to premiere in theaters this fall. One executive at a Netflix competitor told Variety that Netflix’s pricey Knives Out deal could “involve millions in marketing commitments,” plus “astronomical” salary bumps for talent, specifically pointing to Craig, who made over $20 million from recent James Bond films.
Johnson, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his Knives Out screenplay, is also known for writing and directing films like Looper, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. In 2019, Johnson told Variety he would “be thrilled to do another ‘Knives Out’ every few years.”
Filming on the first of the two Knives Out sequels begins this June in Greece, and the film is reportedly beginning casting immediately.
