Paul Giamatti Wants to Be in Knives Out Sequel

Paul Giamatti "would like" to take on a role in one of Rian Johnson's Knives Out films, and there may already be a good idea on the table for who he would play! 

As awards season rolls in, Paul Giamatti is generating buzz for his performance in the new film The Holdovers. During an in-depth discussion with Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Giamatti and host Josh Horowitz dug into what kind of franchise films the actor would be interested in doing – and there was a clear answer:

"There's been this really great revival of the kind of like specifically Agatha Christie, but the kind of like drawing room murder stuff. I love stuff like that and I think that it's great that people are making stuff like that again – like Knives Out and all the Agatha Christie stuff," Giamatti explained. "And I feel like the kids these days are digging that stuff. [Laughs] ... Knives Out 3... I would like to do something like that. It would be fun to play a detective like that – or just somebody in that movie. That kind of world I love, that whole thing."

Horowitz had a novel idea for how to get Paul Giamatti into the Knives Out Universe: as a rival detective for Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc. As soon as Giamatti heard that idea, he was onboard: 

"Sure! Yeah, that would be great: to be the guy who's going up against him. Yes, I like that! That's very good!"

When Is Knives Out 3 Releasing? 

Netflix bought the rights for two Knives Out sequels – the first being Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which was released last year. Rian Johnson has confirmed that he's back to work on Knives Out 3's script, following this year's Hollywood Strikes. There's no solid release date for Knives Out 3, but Johnson has previously stated that he wants to deviate from the formulas of the first two films: 

"It's coming along. I obviously couldn't work during the strike, and now that it's over, I'm diving in full force, and so it's coming along," Johnson told TheWrap. "I've got the premise, I've got the setting, I've got what the movie is in my head. It's just a matter of writing the damn thing."

"I want it to be in America," Johnson previously shared with Insider. "There's a lot of tempting things of going to – Paris or the Alps – but I feel it's really important that these are American movies. Even with Glass Onion, it's set overseas but it's a group of Americans who are trapped on an island together, so bringing it back to somewhere a little closer to home I think could be a good thing for the next one."