IndieWire Consider this FYC Brunch: Glass Onion Panel

Turning a totally original movie idea into a box-office phenomenon is no small feat in today’s IP-driven market, but that’s exactly what Rian Johnson did when Knives Out hit theaters in 2019. It’s even harder to make a sequel that tops the original, but many think Johnson did the same with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Johnson’s latest film brings his crime franchise to Netflix, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as master Southern detective Benoit Blanc. But everything else about the film is new as Blanc travels to Greece to solve a new case involving a cast of murder suspects including Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline and Kathryn Hahn.

At IndieWire’s FYC Consider This Brunch in Hollywood on November 18, the film’s producer Ram Bergman, editor Bob Ducsay and composer Nathan Johnson sat down for a panel moderated by IndieWire’s Eric Kohn. Bergman says Rian Johnson has a guideline for every Knives Out crime movie, starting with Glass Onion: “If we’re going to do it, we’ve got to challenge ourselves,” Bergman said. “Rian has to challenge himself. This goes on. Each time we do another one, it gets harder and harder. But if I bet anyone finds out, it’s Rian.”

Tackling this challenge every time is almost like being a gentleman’s sleuth—an enigmatic, difficult exercise that’s also a lot of fun. “We had so much fun creating it [first] Movie, we thought maybe if it’s successful we can do it again,” Bergman said. “And when it became a success, it was a no-brainer.”

However, it would practically take the brains of Agatha Christie to figure out how to make a film with eight or nine actors in a scene at once when the COVID pandemic was still in full swing. “The outside was everything in Greece and the inside was everything in Belgrade,” Bergman said. “So the challenge during the pandemic was finding a crew to make sets and send them to Belgrade and of course making sure none of the actors tested positive as the domino effects would be extreme as there are always eight or nine people on one are canvas. These actors hadn’t done anything for a year and a half, so asking people to be back in a bubble was a challenge – I think there was the temptation to go to the beach in Greece, but we had to hold back because we filmed in the middle of the delta wave.”

Glass Onion wowed critics when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, with IndieWire’s Kate Erbland writing that “Johnson needn’t worry about a sophomore slump because while Glass Onion does have a certain amount of slump, it’s a smash.” Similar to his 2019 hit (stacked casts, lavish locations, Daniel Craig having the time of his goddamn life), this sequel is zippy and crazy a thrill of its own, and Johnson can’t pull these babies off fast enough.”

Bergman also teased that he and Rian Johnson already know what the next Knives Out movie will be.

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