Rian Johnson Shares Original Storyboard Vision for Knives Out

Last Monday morning, the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards were announced and many of our favorites made the cut this year, including Rian Johnson. Johnson is best known for helming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but his latest film, Knives Out, was a fan-favorite film of 2019. The movie earned Johnson an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and since the announcement, Johnson has shared some neat behind-the-scenes look at his personal notes from before production. Earlier this week, he shared a diagram of the story from his personal notebook, and last night he added a peek at his “original storyboard vision”

“We’re still in theaters this weekend! If you haven’t caught @KnivesOut yet or if you want another shot of whudunnitness we’ve got you covered. Though I can’t promise it will equal the splendor of my original storyboard vision,” Johnson wrote.

You can check out the tweet below:

Many people commented on the post, but the neatest reply was from the Safdie Brothers, who directed another excellent film from 2019: Uncut Gems.

For Best Original Screenplay, Johnson is going up against Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), and Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won (Parasite).

While Knives Out rests in a whole different category from Johnson’s previous film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi – with one of their few similarities being a cameo from Frank Oz – the two do have a very unique connection. Johnson’s first foray into writing and directing in the Star Wars universe, and the vitriolic backlash to it on social media, apparently influenced Knives Out in a unique way.

“Anyone who’s on Twitter these days, God bless you because it’s rough waters out there, but there’s also wonderful stuff about it. That’s why we’re all still on it I guess,” Johnson told Deadline in November. “That’s one of the things [Knives Out] engages with, the current state of online culture. Whether you made a Star Wars movie or you have a cooking show, whatever you’re doing on there, someone’s going to be screaming at you about it probably. Let’s put it on a screen in a way we can all maybe have a laugh about it.”

Knives Out is still playing in select theaters.