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The latest Knives Out film in the popular sleuthing series starring Daniel Craig as private eye Benoit Blanc will open the 2025 London film festival, it has been announced.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third in the series written and directed by Rian Johnson. Like its predecessors, it is inspired by Agatha Christie murder mysteries but in 2023 Johnson said of the film: “The goal is to strike out in a completely new direction tonally and thematically”. While Craig is returning as Blanc, Johnson has assembled a new cast including Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Mila Kunis.
No details of the film’s plot have been revealed, though both O’Connor and Brolin appear to be playing priests. The subtitle Wake Up Dead Man is, like the previous Knives Out film, a reference to pop music. It is the title of a song by U2, in contrast to the Beatles’ Glass Onion of the second film.
Craig was reported to have received about $100m (£74m) for his appearances in Glass Onion and Wake Up Dead Man, with the rights to both films costing Netflix a combined $450m. The writing and development stage of the third film was delayed by the writers’ strike in 2023, and it was shot in the UK in the summer of 2024.
The London film festival screening is billed as an “international” premiere, meaning the film is to have a world premiere in North America, most likely at the Toronto film festival in September. The London film festival runs from 8-19 October.
