With the galaxy far, far away now securely in his rearview, Rian Johnson‘s moving onward and upward back to original features. For his return from the war among the stars, he’s Earthbound to mount an old-fashioned whodunit with all the trimmings.
Today brings the first trailer for Knives Out, a murder mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie. But Johnson’s tale of wicked deeds and hidden motives has been set in the present day, with a coterie of familiar faces having a bit of fun playing somewhere left-of-center.
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Christopher Plummer makes an early exit as an elderly kazillionaire offed on his 85th birthday, whose untimely death casts the ugly shadow of suspicion on all the family convening to celebrate him. Daniel Craig plays our Hercule Poirot stand-in Benoit, the lead investigator to his trusty partner Troy (Lakeith Stanfield).
The rest of the cast comprises a rather unusual set of suspects: there’s Chris Evans as a brash jerk, Jamie Lee Curtis as the bereaved daughter of the deceased, Don Johnson as a relative with a more sunny disposition, Toni Collette as an arch one-liner machine, Michael Shannon as the wild card, and Ana de Armas as the token ingénue.
The truth as to who committed the act most foul and why will come out, but first, we’re in for concealed syringes, car chases, Molotov cocktails, and a knife-bedecked art piece giving off some serious Chekov vibes. This will make for a welcome question mark near the end of this year’s moviegoing calendar, an enigmatic star-studded genre piece in the vein of last year’s Bad Times at the El Royale.
Knives Out comes to cinemas in the US on 27 November, and then the UK on 29 November.
