Monkey Man, the directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, will be premiering on Netflix, the streaming giant announced on Twitter.
Netflix said that the film’s script is co-written by Patel, Paul Angunawela, and John Collee, who co-wrote Hotel Mumbai, which starred Patel. Patel will also be seen starring in the film, which is a story about an unlikely hero who emerges from prison to seek revenge on those who took everything from him.
According to a report in Deadline, Netflix has paid $30 million to acquire the film. According to Deadline, the film is shot in Indonesia and loosely based on the Hindu mythical deity Hanuman, who is half-man and half-monkey.
The film will be a 2022 release on Netflix, Deadline reported.
Monkey Man will be produced by Patel, Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, Jomon Thomas, Samarth Sahni, Christine Haebler, and Anjay Nagpal. Thunder Road’s Jonathan Fuhrman, Bron’s Aaron L Gilbert, Creative Wealth’s Jason Cloth, Bron’s Steven Thibault, and Natalya Pavchinskaya are executive producers of the film.
Recommended
In a statement to Deadline, Patel said he was thrilled to be partnering with Netflix for this project. “I hope this will be a fresh addition to the genre at a time in this industry where my story can become our story. Shooting a film during a pandemic has been quite challenging, to say the least, but the opportunity to reimagine stories from my childhood and infuse them with my love of action cinema has been an absolute joy. Big love to Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee for championing us from the very beginning and Aaron Gilbert and the team at Bron for giving an unproven filmmaker like myself a voice,” he said.
The report stated that the film will also see Sharlto Copley, Sobhita Dhulipala, and Sikandar Kher playing important roles.