The third mystery in the Knives Out universe is nearly here, and alongside Rian Johnson is his cousin Nathan Johnson to compose the score. Nathan Johnson has composed music for his cousin’s films for decades, first working together on Brick, Rian Johnson’s debut feature. Since then, Nathan has composed the score for all of Rian Johnson’s feature films, save Star Wars. These include all three Knives Out mysteries, The Brothers Bloom and Looper. He also developed the score for Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.
Nathan Johnson expressed how it was working with his cousin, and how he wanted a different vibe for the third mystery in the trilogy. He said, “One of the things that I love about these movies is Rian is really not interested in repeating himself, and that applies to all of us. So for the first, for Knives Out, it was the sound of this sharp string quartet in a claustrophobic New England mansion. For Glass Onion, we went big and broad, and it was a lush, lyrical orchestra on the Grecian Isles. For this one, Rian was talking about going much darker, much more gothic. And so I’m using the same orchestral elements, but really bending them and upsteading them in an interesting way.”
Ahead of the film’s release, one track, titled “Betrayed”, was released online. This time around, not every character will have their own theme, but this track was meant to introduce Josh Brolin’s character, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. When asked about the track, he said, “It highlights one of the motifs for Josh Brolin’s character, the Monsignor Wicks. There were a lot of fun things that we got to do, tonal things, in this one. One of the things to start with is there are not a lot of melodic motifs in this score. It’s more a score full of conceptual motifs. So one of those is this scratching thing that we do with the strings… One of the things that Rian said to me specifically about Brolin’s character, Rian was relating him to Ahab in Moby Dick and this idea that he’s ranting at the waves and there’s this underlying dread under the surface of the water. That was the sandbox we were playing in for this one, using a lot of orchestral instruments, but using them in a non-traditional way.”
The film takes place in a church, and Nathan Johnson wanted to create a feeling of warmth, but also coldness that can be felt inside. He stated, “I use a lot of harp in this score, but it’s not like the lovely glissandos that have this heavenly feeling. In this score, when I’m using a harp, it’s the lowest notes plodding and plucking. It’s like the harp in this represents the bells of coming hell. You know what I mean? So it felt like a really wonderful invitation to say, ‘Okay, we’re operating in this classical orchestral landscape, but we’re going to circumvent our expectations and see if we can use this amazing orchestra, but use it in a different way so that…’ And part of that is there’s comfort in the familiar. And it’s not necessarily like there’s something inherently ominous about that sound, but because it’s unfamiliar, that can be a shortcut to unease.”
Wake Up Dead Man is the third film in a trilogy of Benoit Blanc mysteries, preceded by Knives Out and Glass Onion. It will, of course, feature the return of Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, but now with a new crew in the supporting cast. Along with Brolin, Josh O’ Connor, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright and Cailee Spaeny fill out the rest of the cast. The film releases in some theaters on November 26 before dropping on Netflix on December 12.
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