Episode notes
Bullseye’s Jesse Thorn and Rian Johnson (credit: Daniel Speer / Maximum Fun)
Rian Johnson has dedicated the last 20 years of his career to making genre movies that transcend their genre.
It started with Brick, a Raymond Carver-esque detective story set in a Southern California high school. Then, he wrote and directed Looper, a movie about time-travelling hitmen. He directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was the best reviewed movie in the Star Wars franchise since Star Wars: A New Hope.
His latest smash hit film series, Knives Out, blends big, over-the-top whodunnit stories with humor and social satire. Johnson just wrote and directed the third movie in the series: Wake Up, Dead Man. It’s set in a rural catholic church, where Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc investigates the death of the local Monsignor.
Johnson joins Bullseye to talk about growing up as a youth-group kid in Orange County, California, why mystery is so inherent to his writing style, and the harsh realities of shooting micro budget cinema.
In this episode...
Guests
- Rian Johnson
About the show
Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.
Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.
If you would like to pitch a guest for Bullseye, please CLICK HERE. You can also follow Bullseye on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. For more about Bullseye and to see a list of stations that carry it, please click here.
Get in touch with the show
@bullseye.bsky.social
@bullseyewithjessethornPeople
How to listen
Stream or download episodes directly from our website, or listen via your favorite podcatcher!
New? Start here...
Liked Rian Johnson? Listen to these next...
