*Below are Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery spoilers*
Glass Onion director Rian Johnson claimed that Mr Bean inspired the film’s Mona Lisa hoax, which resulted in a pile of paperwork to clear out.
The sequel to Knives Out finishes with the renowned Leonardo Da Vinci painting – possibly the most well-known portrait in the world – being burned to ashes in a violent (and, to be honest, shocking) battle.
The Star Wars filmmaker has confirmed the idea for viewers who were quickly transported back to the stress of witnessing Mr Bean accidently stain 1871 oil painting Whistler’s Mother with blue ink after sneezing on it in the 1997 film Bean.
He also revealed that the artwork they set fire to was a reproduction (clearly) produced by a Belgrade artist, and that the law required them to document its destruction on set.
The writer and director hailed the’very skilled’ local artist who recreated the Mona Lisa, saying it was ‘kind of extraordinary’ to have it on set.
Johnson explained the challenges by stating that they had to ensure that the fake’s destruction was recorded in accordance with the law.
He told Empire magazine’s Spoiler Special podcast: ‘I didn’t realise this, but if you get a recreation like this, you have to destroy them when you’re done filming if it’s a famous work of art. You actually have to document yourself burning the canvas because of the counterfeit market.’
He went on to say that the film’s star, Daniel Craig, was concerned about the fire scenario because he felt viewers would be angry at the destruction of a famous work of art.
However, Johnson was sure there would be a comedic element to it, just like a famous scene in Bean, where Rowan Atkinson’s character follows up his inadvertent ruin of the artwork by Whistler with his own brand of ‘repair’.
The director branded it one of the stand-out funny scenes in cinema history.
He added: ‘Daniel [Craig] was a bit worried that we were ‘killing the puppy’ by upsetting people as we destroyed the Mona Lisa, but the scene in Bean where he destroys Whistler’s Mother is one of the funniest scenes in cinematic history, so I figured we’d get away with this.
‘That scene is so good.’
Johnson explained that, in order to lessen the shock of witnessing the Mona Lisa burn, they shot a credits sequence in which the real painting was revealed to be safe.
‘We also shot a little coda which we decided not to use, with Blanc on the phone speaking French and getting a little affirmation of “ah, oui, oui, merci” and cutting to an office in the Louvre where the real Mona Lisa is, with the security guards saying, “Well, back to work”.’
However, he said he felt that ‘pulls a punch’ and that he ‘like[d] that the real painting gets destroyed in the movie’.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is streaming on Netflix now.
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