Private detective Benoit Blanc will be back on the case soon.
In an earnings call today, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer stated that the studio is officially moving forward with a sequel to writer/director Rian Johnson’s sleeper hit Knives Out, indicating that the studio may be fast tracking the followup. Johnson stated last month that he had been developing a screenplay for a new mystery for his cinematic sleuth to investigate.
Released this past November, the film featured Daniel Craig as a private detective brought in to solve the murder of a famous mystery novelist at his rural Massachusetts mansion. A throwback to classic whodunnits of previous decades, the film featured an all-star cast which included Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon and more. As an original story, Knives Out was a bit of an anomaly in a cinematic landscape dominated by comic book adaptations and film franchises.
To date the film has earned $294 million at the worldwide box office off of a modest budget of $40 million.
Although the film is still screening in a handful of theaters, its home video release is set for February 25.
Even before the film reached a point where a sequel made financial sense, Johnson was hopefully that he could tell more Benoit Blanc mystery stories. When the film screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival last October, Johnson told us “I had so much fun with Daniel, if we can do another Benoit Blanc mystery at some point that would be a blast.”
It is looking as if that time has officially come.
Via Deadline.
