Writer-director Rian Johnson’s all-star murder-mystery will have its European premiere at the festival’s closing night gala, on October 16. Daniel Craig will reprise his role as detective Benoit Blanc, while Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista will all feature alongside him. Craig, Norton, Monáe, Odom Jr., Hudson and Cline are all expected to attend the premiere, as is Johnson. “I’m thrilled to be back at LFF with Glass Onion, and it’s an honour to be closing the festival,” said Johnson. “A proper whodunnit really does belong in London, so it feels a bit like coming home!” Glass Onion is a Netflix feature, with another instalment due down the line. Last year, the streaming giant purchased the rights to two Knives Out sequels from Johnson, in a deal worth a reported $469 million.
After the premiere, Glass Onion will appear in UK cinemas before coming to Netflix’s streaming site. “Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was a major hit when we hosted the European premiere at the festival in 2019,” said BFI London Film Festival director, Tricia Tuttle. “Our audiences adored the film’s wit and that it tipped its very stylish hat to the wonderful tradition of British onscreen sleuths. And here, Rian Johnson strikes gold again with the help of the year’s hottest ensemble cast. Like its predecessor, Glass Onion is entertaining and culturally literate in equal measure, making some hilarious, razor sharp observations about the world we live in.”The game is afoot, the Closing Night Gala film of the BFI London Film Festival will see the return of Detective Benoit Blanc in the European premiere of #GlassOnion: A Knives Out Mystery #LFF https://t.co/Egh9YdfneP pic.twitter.com/2DGKDTkvmA
— BFI (@BFI) August 3, 2022