Aren’t you just dying to stay at an Aman resort? In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which comes to Netflix on December 25, that question takes on very literal terms. The caper turns the luxury hospitality group’s famously peaceful (and fabulous) property in Greece—the Amanzoe—into a tech billionaire’s private island retreat to which the legendary detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) has been mysteriously invited. The surroundings are serene, so it’s all the more striking when heads roll.
Production designer Rick Heinrichs toured the Aman villa early on in the scouting process, but given it wasn’t on an island of its own, but on an inland stretch of archipelago not far from Port Heli, he continued looking for somewhere closer to the water. However, the dramatic modernist silhouette cut by Amanzoe—described in our very own review as a “series of set pieces”—stayed with him. We sat down with Heinrichs to talk about the beauty of Amanzoe; staying in the hotel that you’re shooting in; and working when it feels like a vacation.
How did you land on Amanzoe?
We actually spotted the Aman villa early on as something that could really work, but we didn’t know whether we would ever get permission to shoot there. The people who own such a thing don’t really need a motion picture company to come in there. Also, it wasn't an island, it was in the middle of the Peloponnesian peninsula, which would require us to depend on visual effects to make it look like one. But it turned out after, I don't know, six weeks or so of scouting, that nothing matched the Aman. That’s like life sometimes. You’re afraid you'll fall in love too early and there’s something better out there, but as it turns out, you were right in the first place.
The initial response was to the aesthetic: It had this modernist kind of take on classical Greek architecture. And that felt right for Miles. He's an inquisitive fellow, and he doesn't necessarily have his own aesthetic, but knows he can pay a lot of money for someone who does. And it just felt like a place of power, and had this great stairway that ran up to the top [with the villas in a hierarchy on the way up]. So there's different views from each villa, and they lead up to the [Glass Onion] with the best view on top. It’s very epic, almost like the Colosseum, to approach the villa—which lends itself to the idea that people are about to kill each other. Such scale. And then it offered a concept for building the atrium behind that worked really well as well—the interiors for that were constructed on a stage in Serbia.
Beyond these stage shoots in Serbia, then, you were living and working at the Aman?
Yes. I mean, it was extraordinarily beautiful. Although it is mainland Greece—about four-and-a-half kilometers from the Ionian Sea—you do feel like you’re on an island. Unfortunately for me, I could only be there for a couple of weeks, and then I had to split back to Serbia. [Everyone else was] there for about four weeks of shooting, and then there were about seven weeks back in Belgrade for stage work. Anything set in New York or the Northeast was created in Serbia.
Including those colonial, sort of New England classic exteriors?
Oh, no! There was some outdoor stuff for which we shot a few things on location last fall in Connecticut and New York, and then everything inside was built in Serbia. I was thinking that being Condé Nast Traveler, you'd be more interested in hearing about the Greek parts. [laughs]
We show Belgrade some love, too, but yes, Aman and Greece are top of mind for these purposes.
If you've ever been to Greece, it is really lovely—there are these olive trees everywhere in the Mediterranean. But [the summer of 2021, when we were shooting] was a very hot summer for a lot of people.
I was in Greece myself at this same time—in Athens and on Crete. And it was brutal, over 100 degrees every day and the sky cast brown with smoke from the fires.
And you can kind of see it on the actors here and there. You could tell they're getting a little stressed with the heat. I'm sure that was torture for them. But there were also some lovely days. And it is just so incredible to be there, looking out on the Mediterranean. In fact, I think it’s one of my favorite places in the world. Love that place. Unfortunately, my job doesn't keep me in the beautiful places. It's more about staying ahead of the company and making sure they've got sets to shoot when they catch up.
To clarify—the Aman does not enjoy quite as close proximity to the beach as it may appear in the film. Where is this beach on which you shot?
In the film, Miles’s villa is meant to be right on the water, just about. The Amanzoe villa does have a beach club, which they’ll drive you to, but it’s a little ways away. We shot here, with the yacht pulling up to the shore and all of that. One of the pools is down that way as well. It’s only about four-and-a-half kilometers away from the villa.
Did you get to enjoy any leisure time?
I did, in the week and a half to two weeks during the filming, and during a couple visits before that as well. I got to stay at the villa, which was so special, and pretend I was working while I was just having a really fabulous time hanging out. We got to travel around these different areas with olive trees and beaches and eat the fish and the horiatiki. There was a yacht that we rented during the filming that they take to the island in the film, so we briefly got to use that. It was not for vacation purposes but it’s always lovely being out on the water on a fabulous yacht.
We were also not too far from the island of Spetses, where we did shoot as well. When they all arrive in Greece and are waiting for the yacht, that’s Spetses. I did return there with my family. We rented a boat and went all the way around the island to these beautiful coves and beaches—and you can make the entire trip within a day. Lots of diving and snorkeling and fabulous food, and it's making me really miss it right now talking about it.
