'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' to Open the 2025 London Film Festival

For all that Rian Johnson's Knives Out series of films is really just Agatha Christie stories reset for the 21st century, outside of lead Daniel Craig, who plays Detective Benoit Blanc (he of the Foghorn Leghorn style southern drawl), the cast has been almost entirely American. There are reasons for that, the most obvious of which is that in 1925, Christie was writing about the dying aristocratic system's upper class during the final days of the British Empire; in 2025, Johnson is writing about the dying democratic system's upper class during the final days of the American Empire. However, for the third installment, Wake Up Dead Man, the cast finally brought aboard multiple British actors as the supporting guest cast.

In fact, there's enough U.K. talent in the film that the 69th London BFI Film Festival (held in October) has announced the film will grace the opening night premiere slot that kicks off the event. The festival already has a stacked competition class for 2025, including The Testament of Ann Lee, which brought down the house at its Venice International Film Festival premiere over the Labor Day holiday, and Hedda, which will see Tessa Thompson reimagine Henrik Ibsen's famous heroine, Hedda Gabler, for the big screen.

Wake Up Dead Man will technically premiere before opening London's BFI, debuting on September 6 out of competition, during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Unfortunately, for those who don't spend their lives watching films, the wait will be a couple of months yet, with the film once again playing limited theaters over Thanksgiving before moving to streaming in time for the Christmas holiday.