Cracking the mystery of why Rian Johnson followed upStar Warswith a whodunit.
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This interview with Rian Johnson was originally published in 2019 as part of Vultures Mystery Week.
Its an original take on an anachronism: the star-studded sleuth film.
A few reactions were We like this kind of movie, but why do you want to do this?
That did give me pause, he says.
But I felt like I knew deep down inside why I wanted to do it.
Its also overtly political in content, cleverly investigating our divisive current moment.
Johnson didnt worry that he was bucking a trend in Hollywood.
Youve just got to go out and see it.
I love big franchise stuff too obviously but I feel like its still very possible to make this.
At the writing stage, youre trying to tell a good story, he says.
There are definitely certain attendant weirdnesses to making aStar Warsfilm.
But the reason its scaled up like that is the demands of the production.
So its not like youre on the set ofKnives Outsaying, Where the fuck are my Porg feathers?!
Remember when Hollywood was crazy for noir films set in high schools?
AfterLooper,Johnson had intended this Agatha Christieesque project to be his next film.
But he put it aside to makeThe Last Jedi,which came out in 2017.
And we jumped on it.
It was literally Are you available right now?
Do you want to come up to Boston and have some fun?
Assembling the cast, I had to make very clear to everybody that were not doingClue, Johnson says.
Its not an arch parody.
If you know his history with the platform, its a little surprising to see him still there.
I get leagues more positive stuff from Twitter than negative stuff, he says about his fan interactions online.
What is this online?)
Instead, Im thinking,No, Im getting a very specific slice of a very specific culture.
Hes still in talks to write and direct three (!)
Hilarity and sheer ingenuity … Goodness, what a delight.
Ill take that, he says, warming to the exercise.
After the past few years, this feels good.
