I was good buddies with the magician Ricky Jay, and he was a magician. He was a scholar of magic.

One of the things I learned from just being a fan of Rickies was the narrative storytelling of the trick.

And realizing watching him, it's not about what your fingers are doing or where you're drawing their eye, per se. It's about

the story that they're following and how you use that to keep them engaged. And that's the only

misdirection that actually works. Hello, and welcome back to the Directors' Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.

In this episode, famed Southern Detective Benoit Blanc solves his third case

in director Ryan Johnson's comedic crime drama, Wake Up Dead Man, a Knives Out mystery.

The film finds Blanc teaming up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime.

When the leader of a small town church with a dark history dies from seemingly impossible circumstances,

Blanc must discover who in the rogue's gallery of his congregation committed the crime and how.

In addition to Wake Up Dead Man, Johnson's other directorial credits include the feature films

Knives Out, Glass Onion, a Knives Out mystery, Star Wars Episode 8, The Last Jedi, Looper, The Brothers

Bloom, and Brick, and episodes of the television series, Terriers, and Breaking Bad.

He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for his 2012

Breaking Bad episode, 51. Following a screening of the film at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles,

Johnson spoke with director John Watts about filming Wake Up Dead Man.

Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.

Hi, Ryan.

Hey, John.

I have a lot of questions.

I'm doing my best like James Lipton.

I pick my favorite curse word.

...