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Movies & TV

01st Apr 2021

Netflix spends $450 million for exclusive rights to Knives Out 2 and 3 (Report)

Rory Cashin

It makes for one of the biggest deals ever for the rights to a movie series.

If you haven’t watched the fantastic murder-mystery Knives Out, then you should remedy that as soon as possible. It is currently available to rent and purchase on PVOD services such as Rakuten TV, Google Play, Sky Store and Apple TV.

Written and directed by Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), the movie came about when Daniel Craig found himself at a loose end when Danny Boyle stepped away as director from what would eventually become No Time To Die.

Before that movie moved forward with Cary Joji Fukunaga, Johnson nabbed Craig for the lead role of private detective Benoit Blanc and then filled the rest of the movie with a jaw-droppingly impressive supporting cast: Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell and Christopher Plummer.

The $40 million production went on to make over $310 million at the worldwide box office and Johnson was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay. It also scored a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It was a success in every way a movie can succeed; so, of course, there was almost immediately talk of a sequel.

Or, as it turns out, sequels.

According to Variety, Netflix has purchased the exclusive rights to both Knives Out 2 and Knives Out 3 for a staggering $450 million, making it one of the biggest deals ever for the rights to a movie series.

Both Johnson and Craig will return for the sequels, with the supporting cast being refreshed for each new murder mystery. Deadline reports that Knives Out 2 will begin production in Greece this June, with casting announcements to be made soon.

Provided all goes according to plan, we could potentially see Knives Out 2 on Netflix by mid-to-late 2022.

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