Rian Johnson in ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ Josh O’Connor’s neck tattoo, and AI slop

With Wake Up Dead Manwriter/director Rian Johnson brings the third Benoit Blanc murder mystery to movie fans. But what inspired this strong combination of faith, fear, and logic?

Johnson spoke with Mashable Entertainment editor Kristy Puchko in a Say More interview. Their conversation began on Broadway, covering Johnson’s longtime love of the theater — including her hopes for performing Miss Piggy. Oh, Mary! From there, he talked about his love of the genre, combining highbrow and lowbrow. Hold on to that “hot priest” neck tattoo of Josh O’Connor – and how the internet is so thirsty for it.

Fun fact for fans: O’Connor created the design himself. Johnson wrote a neck tattoo in the text, then apologized to O’Connor, saying, “I know this is going to be a lot of work. We won’t see it lightly, and no one will notice, but I feel like this speaks volumes. This is like the key to this guy.”

A piece of AI slop bucket can’t have that connection with an audience because it never lived.

He continued, “It’s something that Josh designed. Because that was something else, I just wanted to see a little peek of it. [I told him]’I want you to choose what it is, and I want you to design it.’ And I don’t remember exactly what it was. It was some kind of symbol like or something. It wasn’t like a name or anything, but it was something that Josh came up with with a backstory that included what this thing really meant.”

Besides being “thrilled” that fans saw the tattoo, Johnson is optimistic about the future of the film. While the potential merger of Netflix/Warner Bros has some concerns about the fate of movie theaters, and the rise of AI is throwing Hollywood into turmoil, the filmmaker was quoted as expressing calm confidence that human-made art in theaters will survive.

“I’m not afraid,” Johnson began, “Because I go to the movies, and what I see at the movies are young people. And I see young people showing movies. I see them enjoying going out with friends and having that experience. And I mean, AI is a bunch of slop bullshit…I don’t care how good it gets. I think there’s a movie process that’s like a certain process, where the movie is part of a small process. The audience knows they’re interacting with someone, whether that person is the filmmaker, if watching something.”

He continued, “And I think that’s why you see directors like Guillermo [del Toro] and directors like Director Bong [Joon Ho] and directors like the PTA [Paul Thomas Anderson]. And I see fan bases growing around them because they are voices, and audiences connect with them when they watch their films. A piece of AI slop bucket can’t have that connection with an audience because it never lived. So no, I think these are crazy times, and I think there are really hard things in these times. But in the end, I feel secure that people will continue to want to meet and watch the news.”

For more from our Speak Up interview with Johnson, check out the full interview on YouTube.

Wake Up Dead Man now streaming on Netflix.