James Bond 25 might be looking for a new director, but the delay won’t keep Daniel Craig away from the big screen. The current 007 has signed on to star in Rian Johnson‘s first film since The Last Jedi, in a story that sounds like a modern day take on an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery.
Deadline reports Craig will play the lead detective in Knives Out, which Johnson also wrote. The film, described as a “classic whodunit” with a contemporary setting, is set to start filming this November before Johnson begins work on his all new Star Wars trilogy. While this won’t be Johnson’s first big-screen thriller–his debut film Brick was a neo-noir about a high school crime ring–it should be a new take on a mystery for him, even though it could be heavily-influenced by one of the genre’s greatest masters.
Johnson told Deadline he has been obsessed with Agatha Christie since he was a teenager, and he has spent the last ten years trying to craft his own very own version of a classic murder mystery. So if Knives Out is inspired by Christie’s novels, what might that mean for the movie? Some of her most identifiable calling cards include a brilliant detective, elaborate, complex plots, fully fleshed out, rich characters, fake outs, false identities, and, of course, huge twists and turns, especially the end.
Which means even if we know we’re getting a modern day version of an Agatha Christie-style story, we’ll have no idea what we’re actually going to get until the story is completely over. But hey, if Craig’s detective is as smart as we expect him to be, maybe he can work on finding a new director for James Bond 25 after he solves this case.
What classic murder mystery tropes do you hope to see in Knives Out? Take out your thoughts and slice up our comments section with them.
Images: MGM