Edward Norton is the latest actor to snag a part in Rian Johnson's Knives Out 2.
According to Deadline, the Oscar-nominee is set to play a mystery role in Johnson's as-yet untitled whodunnit adventure. He joins Dave Bautista in the cast for the Knives Out sequel, with Daniel Craig slated to once again star as the donut hole-loving private detective Benoit Blanc.
Craig will reportedly be the only Knives Out cast member returning for the sequel. As Johnson explained in Feb. 2020, the intention is for each chapter in the franchise to be a standalone adventure centering on one of Blanc's investigations. "The idea would be Daniel Craig as the detective -- whole new cast, whole new case, whole new location," Jonson explained. "It’s just like doing another Hercule Poirot mystery like Agatha Christie did."
For Norton, Knives Out 2 will mark his first major starring role since 2019's Motherless Brooklyn, a film adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's 1999 neo-noir crime novel that Norton also scripted and directed. Norton will also reunite with his frequent collaborator Wes Anderson on The French Dispatch, a film that was originally scheduled for 2020 but later postponed in response to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
While the first movie was distributed by Lionsgate in 2019, Netflix has since purchased the rights to Johnson's two planned Knives Out sequels for a whopping $450 million. The first of those followups will begin shooting in Greece this summer.
Johnson is also working separately on Poker Face, an original mystery show that received a straight-to-series order of 10 episodes and will stream on NBCUniversal's service Peacock. Russian Doll co-creator/lead Natasha Lyonne will star in the show and serve as an executive producer through her Animal Pictures production company, with Johnson acting as head writer/director and producing through his T-Street banner alongside Ram Bergman and Nena Rodrigue.
Written, produced and directed by Rian Johnson, Knives Out stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Ana de Armas, and Jamie Lee Curtis, Jaeden Martell, Katherine Langford, Frank Oz, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer, and Riki Lindhome. The film is now available on Digital HD and Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Knives Out 2 does not yet have a release date.
Source: Deadline