DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: As one door seemingly closes, another looks to be opening. I understand from sources that Captain America star Chris Evans is joining Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s red-hot murder mystery movie Knives Out.

The casting bolsters the project’s status as one of the hottest in the works at the moment and follows MRC’s big money deal for it out of Toronto. As we previously broke, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Johnson, who wrote the script and is producing with partner Ram Bergman, will make the movie before directing a new trilogy in the Star Wars universe.

Plot details on the film are largely being kept under wraps but the pic will likely shoot this year, meaning Craig will shoot it before Bond 25. It is understood to be a modern day murder mystery in the classic whodunit style.

The project is timely for Evans on the day that speculation is in overdrive about him hanging up his Captain America shield after playing the Marvel stalwart since 2011. Anthony and Joe Russo’s latest installment in the Avengers franchise will hit next year. The in-demand actor also has thriller The Red Sea Diving Resort coming up and he was set for Neill Blomkamp’s Greenland during Cannes. Knives Out is expected to be his next movie.

Evans is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Meyer & Downs.