Dev Patel next action movie Monkey man It looks damn awesome! But it wasn’t an easy film for Patel to make. During an AMA on Reddit, actor and director Patel revealed this Monkey man it was “the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life” because “every day we faced an absolute catastrophe.”
Patel then went on to talk about all the problems he faced while making the film, and after hearing them, it’s pretty crazy that he actually managed to make the film! Their funding was almost withdrawn, they lost their premises, their camera broke and at one point it was “virtually dead”.
Patel shared, “I begged our financier not to shut us down a few weeks before principal photography. We were supposed to shoot in India, then COVID hit. I lost my initial set designer and [cinematographer] and the film was basically dead, so we changed direction and went to a small island in Indonesia where we could create a bubble in an empty hotel for the entire crew of almost 500 people. It’s been a grueling nine months of absolute joy and total chaos.
He continued: “We had been preparing all the locations for months – we lost a day – so we had to adapt them at the last minute,” he continued. “The borders are also closed, so I couldn’t involve many secondary characters. I ended up having to put every tailor, lighting technician, accountant, etc. in front of the camera. Speaking of cameras, most of our equipment broke and we couldn’t fly new stuff, so we literally shot stuff on my phone, went pro: when a crane broke we ended up [up] creating this camera rig with a string that I called a “pendulum cam,” which swings over a large crowd of people, then comes off and the cameramen run into the crowd as it rolls.”
Patel went on to say that there were days when his production designer said the production “literally had no money” to finish certain sets. He also revealed that “One of our producers used his personal credit card to purchase glass to cover the table tops” in one of the major action scenes.
To help save money, Patel also talked about how they had to make use of what little they had: “Speaking of tables, we only had three or four separate tables, so once I’d do a huge amount of stunts I’d yell CUT and then immediately all of us we would get down on our knees looking for all the broken pieces of wood to glue the tables back together for the next shot. Simply put, each obstacle provided us with a new opportunity to innovate. BOOM!”
It’s crazy! It sounds like it was an extremely stressful filmmaking experience, especially for a first-time director! But he managed to pull it off and it looks like the movie will be a big hit!
The story is “Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon who embodies strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a miserable living in an underground Fight Club where, night after night, he wears a mask as a gorilla, he gets beaten bloody by the most popular fighters for money.
“After years of pent-up anger, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the city’s sinister elite enclave. As his childhood trauma reignites, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of revenge to settle scores with the men who took everything from him.”
Jordan Peele produced the project, which was originally supposed to be released on Netflix, but the movie was so damn amazing that Peele pushed for the movie to get a full theatrical release because it’s a movie that needed to be seen on the big screen.
The film’s description says: “Patel makes a stunning tour de force directorial debut with an action thriller about one man’s quest for revenge against the corrupt leaders who killed his mother and continue to systematically victimize the poor and powerless “.
Patel also developed the original story and wrote the screenplay Paul Angunawela AND John Collee (Master and Commander: The Other Side of the World).
The film is said to be packed with thrilling and spectacular fight and chase scenes, and the film’s international cast includes this Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sobhita Dhulipala (Made in heaven), Pitobash (Million dollar arm), Vipin Sharma (Hotel Bombay), Ashwini Kalsekar (Ek Tha Hero), Adithi Kalkunte (Hotel Bombay), Sikandar Kher (Aarya) AND Makarand Deshpande (RRR).
Monkey man is produced by Dev Patel, Jomon Thomas (Hotel Mumbai, The Man Who Knew Infinity), Jordan Peele (No, go out), Win Rosenfeld (Candyman, Hunters series), Ian Cooper (No, us), Basil Iwanyk (John Wick franchising, Hitman movie), Erica Lee (John Wick franchising, Silent night), Christine Haebler (Closed, Crow Bones) AND Anjay Nagpal (executive producer of Bomb, greyhound). Serving as executive producers are Jonathan Fuhrmann, Natalia Pavchinskya, Aaron L. Gilbert, Andria Spring, Alison-Jane Roney AND Steven Thibault.
Monkey man will only be released in theaters on April 5, 2024.
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
