‘Wake Up Dead Man’ TIFF Premiere

The all-star cast of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery attended the Toronto International Film Festival world premiere of Rian Johnson’s latest whodunnit entry, held today at the Princess of Wales Theatre in the city’s downtown Entertainment District.

Prior to the starry screening event, stars Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack — along with scribe-filmmaker Johnson — stopped by the Deadline Studio at the boutique luxury BISHA Hotel. (Thomas Haden Church is also in the cast, but was not in attendance.)

Also at the premiere was Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery alum Edward Norton, as well as Karina Longworth, the host of popular Hollywood history podcast You Must Remember This and Johnson’s wife.

With a limited theatrical run starting Nov. 26 and arriving Dec. 12 on Netflix, the latest Benoit Blanc (Craig) murder-mystery had its premiere in the Special Presentations section at TIFF. With much of the film’s details under wraps, not much is known about the plot, though it’s noted that the movie will offer a darker story at its center. First-look photos indicate a gothic tone, with Catholic themes, as O’Connor and Brolin play a reverend and monsignor, respectively. Meanwhile, Kunis portrays a local police chief who teams up with Blanc. Johnson previously told Deadline the movie would pay homage to the origins of the genre, with a look and feel reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe.

“Themes of guilt, mystery, morality, and fallible humanity all feel right at home in a church, with a man of God in the center of the mix,” Johnson explained to Netflix. “I have strong feelings about faith: both my own personal experience and how it intersects with our country’s cultural and civic life, and the ways that intersection touches all of us differently. So it felt like rich ground for a good story.”

See the premiere photos below: