Rian Johnson thinks he can get away from that A Knives Out Mystery subtitle for future movies
Johnson hopes we'll someday think of these as Benoit Blanc movies instead of Knives Outmovies
Aux News Rian Johnson
Shortly after Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion hit Netflix, the director expressed his frustration that Netflix (presumably) forced him to make the full title of the film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery so everyone would know the film was set in the same universe as his previous whodunit. Well, “expressed his frustration” is just one way to put it… Johnson’s actual comment was, “Honestly, I’m pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. Johnson’s dream was to make each of his Knives Out movies completely standalone, and he thought that putting A Knives Out Mystery in the title would spoil the magic of pulling “a new novel off the shelf every time.”
But now, with Glass Onion doing pretty well on Netflix, Johnson is confident that he’ll eventually be able to get away with dropping that subtitle and replacing it with a better one—specifically A Benoit Blanc Mystery. That’s what Johnson told The Filmcast (f.k.a. The Slashfilmcast) recently, saying that he wants “to see how quickly we can lose” A Knives Out Mystery as the official subtitles for these things, adding that, with Glass Onion, “the reach of Netflix” and the number of people who have apparently seen the film means that “we’re at least getting closer to being able to get away with A Benoit Blanc Mystery and people would know what we’re talking about.”
So if we want that to happen by the third movie, we all need to start calling them “Benoit Blanc movies” and not “Knives Out movies,” so… ignore the thing up above where we said these were “Knives Out movies.” We need to get the name Benoit Blanc into the public consciosness so that someday someone will say, “What’s the name of the Benoit Blanc movie where Captain America takes the knives out on the woman who throws up when she lies?”
56 Comments
Vital issue that needs daily coverage to keep us informed
Everyday I ask, what is next for Benoit Blanc
Whenever Benoit isn’t on screen all the other characters should be asking “Where’s Benoit Blanc??”
AV Club, definitely the place you go to for “vital issues.”
“Vital issue”
Is that what you come to the AV Club for?
it’s fucking AV Club, what are you expecting?
it is a genuinely ugly and dumb name for a movie.
I think it’s fantastic and interesting….
So ugly and dumb it’s brilliant!
No it’s just dumb!
I’m just glad that he got to make a sequel (/hope he continues to keep making them) I didn’t like Glass Onion as much as Knives Out, but I thought it was pretty good, but most importantly I like mysteries, and that’s a genre woefully under served recently in the blockbuster age. May Foghorn DanielCraighorn go for six seasons and a movie movies and a TV spinoff
I thought it was a lovely time. Like you said, not as shimmering as Knives Out, which is just so perfect. But completely enjoyable and the type of movie we need more of. It told an interesting story and had good twists and it was smarter than your average bear. There is an audience for that, for sure.
“and it was smarter than your average bear”well maybe except for the big bad LOL
I think it was pretty good way to pass two hours. I think so much of the discourse revolving around how smart the movie is exactly (“Very smart!” vs. ”Totally dumb!”) misses the point of it just trying to be a good time. As someone who doesn’t have strong feelings about the mystery genre or the other, it felt like a tub of popcorn to me. Utterly disposable, but pleasant in the moment.
What YOU said…
We seem to be firmly in an era when “the discourse” is a thing unto itself, but the thing “the discourse” is about… doesn’t get to be a thing unto itself. Every movie isn’t going to sweep awards season. Every movie isn’t supposed to sweep awards season. Every movie isn’t intended to sweep awards season. Sometimes we want our entertainment to be entertaining!
To put that another way: Thor: Love & Thunder wasn’t Ragnarok, but it also wasn’t The Dark World. I didn’t need it to be a best picture nominee. I didn’t need it to be a refreshing surprise. I just needed it to be entertaining. And better than The Dark World.
I just needed it to be entertaining. And better than The Dark World.Well, that part goes without saying, because The Dark World wasn’t entertaining.
Admittedly redundant. And a low bar. But a bar laying on the floor is still a bar.
Dark World had some of the best moments in the MCU. Thor hanging up Mjolnir on the coat rack? Genius. Chris Evans as Tom Hiddleston as Loki? (Hiddleston did the scene -in full Captain America costume- as reference for Evans even!) Glorious. “Mew Mew!” Nuff said.It’s just a shame that the rest of the airplane can’t be made out of the black box material.
May be this is recentness anti-bias, but I hated L&T so much that I find The Dark World is better. At least TDW takes it pathos seriously unlike L&T.
Wow. Hated it?!?! I found it too… slight… to be able to imagine anyone hating it. It wasn’t Iron Man 2!!!
I’m optimistic that they’ll just keep making them. Craig seems to have a blast doing it, and the cast for each one basically amounts to a random grab bag of available, fun celebrities. Don Johnson? Sure! Kathryn Hahn? Why not!
Get real. It’s a brand name. No way in hell it’s going away.
1: No, it’s not a brand name. Netflix is a brand name. Glass Onion only had one connection to Knives Out and it was not a connection to Knives Out.
2: If Netflix wants to establish a brand name for this series, it makes a whole helluva lot more sense to establish one based upon what the brand is [ensemble mysteries, featuring a single detective, Benoit Blanc] than what it isn’t [ensemble mysteries featuring the cast of Knives Out or any meaningful connection to Knives Out].
What about subtitling the next one A Glow Season Four Mystery?
let’s be real here, netflix has never been good at *branding* just look at the *Flanoverse*
The clear solution is to make fun of it by calling the next film ‘a Glass Onion mystery’—cap_n_jack
https://www.avclub.com/1849931265
To help today’s increasingly selective audiences, I think all movies should indicate whether or not they’re “A Knives Out Mystery”. For example:Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Avatar 2: Not a Knives Out Mystery
This is…. actually funny
Avatar 2: A Na’vs Out Mystery
I believe they should be called Benoit Balls.
Benoit Peculiar OdditiesAnd please, no Electric Benoit Boogaloo
No one can resist his Benoit Balls
I’m already not thinking of The Last Jedi as a Star Wars film so way ahead of you there, Rian.Also, Knives Out was such a shitty movie that I don’t have to worry about subsequent installments.Looper was OK, though.
Looper was OK but Knives Out was shitty? What was so bad about Knives Out?
It was made after The Last Jedi so this (presumably) guy had already decided it would be awful before watching, and it also centres around a minority woman taking wealth from good upstanding white Americans.
“Also, Knives Out was such a shitty movie that I don’t have to worry about subsequent installments.”
Sure it was, incel Star Wars cunt.
Johnson hopes we’ll someday think of these as Benoit Blanc movies instead of Knives OutmoviesThere needs to be a space between Out and movies.
It doesn’t matter, since in twenty years when Johnson goes back to make his Benoit Blanc prequel trilogy, they’re going to re-title Knives Out as Knives Out IV: The First Knife.
Let’s ask George R R Martin, who wanted the Game of Thrones TV show to be called A Song of Ice and Fire.
It’ll just make for a smoother transition if Krzysztof Kieślowski ends up taking over the series and wants to make A Benoir Rouge Mystery, and A Benoir Bleu Mystery.
Get rid of the subtitle completely. Bond movies aren’t subtitled A James Bond Movie.
Somewhere, Daniel Craig just flinched.
Kill Bond, if you must.
No, but they do slap a 007 logo on the posters, boxes, ads, etc.
That’s not the same thing.
What if we spelled it B0n0it B7anc?
It means your suggestion is incorrect that the studio just trusts audiences to know that a movie is a Bond movie. They make efforts to make that connection clear, just as the Netflix did in choosing the title for the follow up to Knives Out.
I have zero problems with a franchise logo. That’s the best way to do it. But including the franchise name in the movie title like Glass Onion did is just stupid.
I’m honestly baffled by the irritation about this. Using the “franchise name” is the norm for movie franchises. Take Star Wars, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible, Transformers, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, and on and on. That’s not even counting the movies that simply add a number after the title of the original movie.
I’m honestly baffled by the irritation about this.
Because A Knives Out Mystery is a ridiculous subtitle. Glass Onion has absolutely nothing to do with Knives Out. They share a character, that’s it. Subtitling it A Benoit Blanc Mystery would’ve made a shit-ton more sense, even though a subtitle isn’t necessary at all.
Using the “franchise name” is the norm for movie franchises. Take Star
Wars, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible,
Transformers, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, and on and on.
Every franchise you’re talking about is a series, where what happens in the earlier movies affects what happens in the later movies. That’s not the case here. Knives Out and Glass Onion are completely independent from one another.
First of all, I don’t think the distinction you’re making makes a lot of sense. But it also doesn’t really hold up. The first three Mission Impossible movies were a “series,” by your definition — they shared Tom Cruise (and Ving Rhames in two of them) but each movie had little or no affect on the others. The new Star Trek movies similarly tell independent adventure stories using the same core cast. In fact, when Star Trek: Into Darkness seemingly added a new crew member (Alive Eve) she was then dropped without mention in the next one. That didn’t stop either the Star Trek movies or the Mission Impossible movies from using the naming convention you find so annoying. That’s because the name has nothing to do with whether it’s a “series,” but has to do with the desire to tell audiences that a new movie is part of the same franchise as past movies they like.
All for dropping that. it would be like calling Bond movies, Dr. No movies.
Fine, all future movies will be:_________: A Glass Onion Mystery
Probably. Who gives a shit
Rian should consider getting back to making good movies instead of Twitter-fueled snarky 2 hour memes about how all rich people are really dumb and super lucky.