Craig's detective returns as new 'Knives Out' lights up Toronto fest

TORONTO - Daniel Craig led an A-list cast to Toronto with his latest Knives Out whodunit movie, one of several star-studded world premieres on a packed Saturday night at North America's biggest movie festival.

The darkest of the now-trilogy of Oscar-nominated murder mysteries, Wake Up Dead Man is set at a small-town church in upstate New York, where a charismatic firebrand priest holds sway over his devoted congregation.

When a seemingly impossible death occurs, a local police chief sends for Craig's Benoit Blanc - the gentleman detective with a deep Southern drawl who has anchored every film. Glenn Close, Mila Kunis and Josh Brolin are among the cast.

"Well, when they're as fun as this, then it's really easy" to keep coming back, Craig told AFP on the red carpet.

"It's a departure from the other two, but it's still within the realms of a murder mystery and the rules of the game."

After the success of the first Knives Out film - loosely inspired by Agatha Christie's novels - Netflix paid a reported $400 million for two sequels.

The second film, Glass Onion, became the first Netflix film to play in major US theatre chains.

The latest will also hit theatre’s first, in November, before streaming in December.

Director Rian Johnson said the new film's creepy Gothic tone was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's writings, though the movie is set in the present day and inflected with the franchise's usual satirical humour.

The movie takes swings at conspiracy theorists and divisive politicians profiting off hate.

Not-so-veiled digs at Trumpism include Josh O'Connor's priest character being mocked as a PINO, or a "Priest in Name Only" - riffing off the "Republican in Name Only" slur beloved by the US president and his supporters.

'LET ELVIS SING'

Also on Saturday, French director Romain Gavras premiered his celebrity climate-change satire Sacrifice, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans, as an eco-terrorist and a waning movie star, respectively.

The film sees a doomsday cult attempt to save the world by sacrificing celebritiesin a Greek volcano - a wild ploy that comes to somehow appeal to the vanity of the Hollywood hostages.

"It's a movie about people trying to change the world, some people for the wrong reasons, some people for show, some people for really radical reasons," Gavras told AFP.

"Just because of the nature of the story, it needed big names because we're talking about celebrity... there's a meta-ness to the movie."

The cast includes Salma Hayek Pinault, John Malkovich and singer Charli XCX.

Meanwhile, Baz Luhrmann unveiled an Elvis Presley concert film that has been seven years in the making.

Quasi-documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, uses long-lost footage unearthed by the director while researching his 2022 Oscar-nominated drama Elvis, starring Austin Butler.

The film makes the case that Presley was still at the peak of his performing powers in the 1970s, and is narrated by the singer himself, using archive clips.

"We made the decision that we should let Elvis sing and tell his story himself. That was really the choice," said Luhrmann.

Elsewhere, Channing Tatum launched Roofman. The crime dramedy is based on the true story of Jeffrey Manchester, who robbed McDonalds restaurants by breaking in through their roofs, and lived secretly in the walls of a Toys R Us store.

"I remember yelling at the actual script. I was, like, 'Don't do that. Just stop!'" said Tatum, of his character's series of disastrous decisions.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs until 14 September.