Netflix’s competition for acquiring rights were Bron and Thunder Road
Netflix has struck a deal of $30M for worldwide rights to Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man.
Filming for the movie has just been wrapped up, and will have the Oscar-nominated actor playing an unlikely hero who rises from prison to fight a world tangled in corporate greed and eroding spiritual values, and also seeking revenge against the people who took everything from him a long time back.
Movie details
The buzz around this revenge-thriller had been high following last week’s virtual EFM and following the footage of Netflix beating other bidders on the project, Joker‘s producer Bron and John Wick producers Thunder Road. An industry insider who saw some footage from the movie described it as “John Wick in Mumbai.” Netflix will be releasing it in 2022.
Other cast members include Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sobhita Dhulipala (Psycho Raman) and Sikandar Kher (24: India).
Patel, who rose to worldwide fame with Slumdog Millionaire has written the script with Paul Angunawela and his Hotel Mumbai collaborate John Collee. The film has been partly inspired from the Hindu myth about the god Hanuman, who is half man, half monkey.
Patel’s statement
Patel spoke about his excitement in partnering up with Netflix, and said he hopes it will become a fresh addition to the genre and that his story becomes everyone’s story. He said that shooting the movie amidst the pandemic was challenging, but the chance to reimagine his childhood stories with his love for action cinema was an absolute joy.
The movie was set to shoot in India, but was shifted to Indonesia due to the pandemic.
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