One of the most thriving partnerships currently in Hollywood is that of writer-director Rian Johnson and producer Ram Bergman. If not for his continued support, Johnson would've probably felt lost at sea. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Knives Out filmmaker remembers feeling that his career would've probably ended after The Brothers Bloom, which neither did well commercially nor was a critics' darling, despite largely favourable reviews. Fortunately, Bergman continued his support and made Johnson's next project, Looper, possible. The film's critical and commercial success worked in his favour.
Johnson recalls putting more effort into writing an effective story for the sci-fi feature starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. “I definitely should have been shut down after Brothers Bloom,” he shares. “I came into the writing of Looper feeling like, ‘OK, I have to hit this one out of the park because I might not get another shot.’”
Johnson's career later went into overdrive, with stellar directing assignments on Breaking Bad, followed by the second entry in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi, a splendidly made but polarising effort. Though Lucasfilm admired his work enough to offer the third one, he politely declined, considering the overwhelming pressure that comes with the territory. The backlash indeed got to him.
“Before I made the Star Wars movie, when I was very, very active on Twitter, if someone said anything mean about me, I felt like I had to fix that,” said Johnson, while acknowledging that anything to do with Star Wars comes with extreme reactions on either side of the spectrum. “Having grown up as a Star Wars fan, I think the love and the hate are two sides of the same coin, and it’s all passion for what the thing is. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with when it’s coming at you in a personal way.”
Meanwhile, die-hard fans of Johnson's critically acclaimed Poker Face were shocked recently when streaming platform Peacock announced that the Natasha Lyonne show won't return after the second season. However, Johnson and Lyonne have jointly stated that there is a plan to pitch upcoming seasons to other platforms, with Peter Dinklage replacing Lyonne, in the same character.
In a statement to Deadline, the duo said: “We’ve been germinating this next move together since writing the season two finale. We love our Poker Face, and this is the perfect way to keep it rolling. Give us a beat, and we may just see Charlie Cale again down that open highway.”
The third film in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, will premiere on Netflix on Dec. 12 after completing a limited theatrical engagement.