The first film of Dev Patel’s direct career, Monkey Man, was released at the SXSW Film Festival, where the Austin crowd received a standing ovation.
Universal Pictures Monkey Man tells the story of a fighter from Mumbai who sets out to seek vengeance against the corrupt elites of his city who were responsible for his mother’s murder. The movie, compared to John Wick, is inspired by the legend of Hanuman.
The actor revealed that classic Bruce Lee movies and The Raid inspired him. Initially, the plan was for Patel to co-write the screenplay while someone else directed it.
He said to Hollywood reporter, “I took it to Neil Blomkamp, originally, Me and Neil were talking, and he went, ‘Man, I thought you should do this. You know every corner of it.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t do it.’ He goes, ‘You can.’ I reluctantly got pushed into the driver’s seat.”
Patel shared that they faced catastrophic challenges every day during the production of their film. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted filming, forcing the production to move from India to Indonesia.
Later, border closures made it difficult to find cast and crew. The team had to resort to finding stuntmen on YouTube and using crew members as extras. According to Patel, every person you see in the film is either an accountant or a tailor.
Sharon Meir, the cinematographer who worked on Whiplash, had to deal with faulty camera equipment and improvise at times. When a crane broke, they hung a camera from a swinging rope. Some scenes were even filmed on Patel’s cell phone, including a car crash involving a tuk-tuk.
The production was also physically demanding and bruising for Patel. He broke his toes two weeks before filming, tore his shoulder while shooting a fight sequence, and got an eye infection after crawling on a bathroom floor for a scene.
After all of that, Monkey Man was languishing in post-production without solid distribution when Universal grabbed the movie for theatrical release at the behest of filmmaker Jordan Peele.
At the time, insiders said Peele had a chance to see the film and was so taken with Patel’s vision that he believed it deserved a theatrical release.
Monkey Man went through post-production without any solid distribution. However, Universal acquired the movie for theatrical release after filmmaker Jordan Peele recommended it.
Insiders revealed that Peele had watched the film and was so impressed with Patel’s vision that he believed it deserved a theatrical release.
Dev said, “Jordan came along at the end and brushed the dust off of it and put it on the mantel and gave us this opportunity.”
Peele replied, “No one has put their soul, energy, mind, body into a film than this man. And he has done it for us to enjoy this film.”