Netflix Spends $450 Million For Two ‘Knives Out’ Sequels
Netflix has astonished the film industry by purchasing the rights to not one, but two Knives Out sequels for a whopping $450 million, IndieWire reports.
News broke last February that the film’s director Rian Johnson was officially developing Knives Out 2 with leading star Daniel Craig reprising his role. The latest is that the pair are set to collaborate on making a Knives Out 2 and a Knives Out 3 for the streaming platform.
The reported $450 million price tag makes the Netflix deal the biggest film purchase in history, almost double the budget of Netflix’s upcoming film The Gray Man. At a $200 million budget, it is the most expensive Netflix original film to date. However, a representative for Netflix told the media outlet that though the deal is accurate, the figures reported elsewhere are not.
The first Knives Out was distributed by Lionsgate in November 2019, costing $40 million in production, yet grossing $311.4 million worldwide. Apparently, it’s rare for an original property to breakout at the box office in such a big way like the film did, so it was no surprise that Johnson and Craig announced they were moving forward with Knives Out 2 last February.
Recently, there was a discreet auction that went on between Netflix, Apple, and Amazon. The original was acquired in a single picture deal by Media Rights Capital (MRC), which distributed the film through Lionsgate, Deadline reports.
If you haven’t watched Knives Out yet, the premise stars Daniel Craig as super sleuth Benoit Blanc, a master detective who investigates the murder of a wealthy eccentric crime novelist in his house. His money-grabbing family finds themselves under suspicion. The original film featured an ensemble cast consisting Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and the late Christopher Plummer.
You can watch Knives Out on Amazon Prime with a subscription. Watch the original trailer here:
Knives Out was nominated for three Golden Globes last year: Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Daniel Craig, and Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Ana de Armas. Johnson was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Director Johnson said in September 2019, “I’ve never really been interested in doing sequels, but this, the idea of doing more of these with Daniel as his character, is not sequels. It’s just what Agatha Christie did. It’s just coming up with a whole new mystery, a whole new location, all new cast, whole new mechanics of the appeal of a mystery and everything. It’d be a blast.” 47-year-old Johnson previously directed 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, 2012’s Looper and 2005’s Brick.
The first Knives Out sequel will begin shooting June 28 in Greece, and casting will begin immediately.
