Pitch for "Hanging Sword: A Knives Out Mystery"
Knives Out 3:
"Hanging Sword: A Knives Out Mystery"
Billionaire is murdered, stabbed in the back, Blanc comes in to solve it, befriends a young woman, finds everyone has a reason to want the billionaire dead, and catches the killer who had a personal grievance and confesses to stabbing him... all in the first act.
As they're arresting the killer, the autopsy report comes in and reveals that the billionaire was poisoned and was dead before the stabber stabbed him. This is kept a secret as the investigation continues (though everything is harder now because they thought it was already wrapped up, suspects have been released and the scene has been opened up again).
At the end of the second act, it is revealed three other people had various (some good some bad) reasons to kill the billionaire, and they had put something in his drink and heavily nudged the stabber to do the stabbing and take the blame.
However, they claim that they never committed any crimes, you can't be arrested for putting the idea of murder in someone's head, all they did was give him a sleeping pill. Blanc then asks "Sleeping pill? You put poison in it!" and they defend themselves that that would be dumb because it would then absolve the stabber, defeating the point of the stabbing, and that's when they finally realise why the investigation is ongoing, someone else had poisoned him.
In this sequence, it is also then revealed amongst these revelations that it was the young woman Blanc befriended that had poisoned him, and that her grievance against him was far greater, as the billionaire had committed the worst atrocities upon her family for decades, it's how he became rich, and because he was rich he was able to hire lawyers to ensure he would never face justice for his crimes, so she took on a false name and murdered him herself.
In the end, Blanc finds a way to make it seem like a suicide, protecting the young woman and letting the others with their lesser personal grievances all remain suspicious of each other going forward.
Over these films, you can see a miniature arc for Benoit Blanc; in the first one the billionaire is benevolent and it's the rich family who grew up in wealth who are cruel, and the justice system makes everything right in the end, a tame class critique; in the second one the billionaire is idiotic and he and his friends are only doing what they can to always win, and although the justice system can't do anything they are still able to destroy the billionaire's legacy, a more scathing class critique; and this third one had the billionaire being incredibly cruel in every respect and that's how he became a billionaire (not a good book writer or a simple idea stealer, more like abject slavery) and everyone around him wants him dead but for various reasons, and it is going behind the back of the justice system and lying and letting a murderer walk free that is the true justice of the story, a more radical critique of class. Each story sees Benoit Blanc, and the movies themselves, becoming slightly more and more radical in their anti-capitalist politics.
The title "Hanging Sword" has an important meaning. During the story, they mention the Sword of Damocles, an ancient anecdote about a courtier, Damocles, who hung a sharpened sword above the head of his king, Dionysius II, and hung it by the thinnest thread, to show the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power. In Hanging Sword, there is also a snarky comment by the young female companion about how kings should be worried about that because they're all inherently evil, there are no good kings (much like how there are no good billionaires). This links to this story as everyone thinks the dead billionaire was going to die eventually because of his power (and cruelty) and while everyone is focusing on the evils of the hanging sword (the murder), few are noticing the actual actions of the king (the cruel billionaire). By the end, all the others who wanted him dead are suspicious of each other, thinking they might be murderers, and so they feel as if they might be next, they have the hanging sword above them now; and both Benoit Blanc and the young female companion are aware that they could do a mutually-assured-destruction on each other, for if either of them spoke about it, she would be in jail for murder and he would be in jail for aiding and abetting a murderer, they both have hanging swords above them. Lastly, it connects to the initial way we think the guy died, someone stabbed him, and it also harkens back to the idea that this is a Knives Out story, with the hanging sword being the knife that is out, and as with people in such positions of power (and the ways in which they have achieved it) will always have knives out around them and will always having hanging swords above them. "Hanging Sword" may sound kinda dumb though, but then again so does "Glass Onion" so I think it fits.
Also make it set in Spring, since we have the first one set in Autumn and the second in Summer, so if there is a fourth then it will be a radical winter story.
Also have Ben and Philip kiss on screen in ways that it cannot be cut for international audiences, maybe even a little handholding.
A fourth film would be set in Christmas, would have Blanc and Phillip getting married and their wedding would be the main setting, and would have a cast partially comprised of characters from the first three movies, some as friends like Elliot and Helen and Derol and Natasha Lyonne, and some seeking some kind of revenge, like Miles Bron and Linda Drysdale, and it would obviously end with some new young female friend leading an anticapitalist revolution and guillotining the rich.
