Monkey Man is a 2024 action thriller film directed by Dev Patel, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee.
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- Monkey Man is a 2024 action thriller film directed by Dev Patel.
- He co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee.
- Dev Patel, who co-produced the film and stars in the lead role, alongside Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte, and Makarand Deshpande.
- The movie is a revenge tale, it addresses the topics of corruption and discriminations in Indian society.
- Monkey Man had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 11, 2024. was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on April 5, 2024.[9][10] It received positive reviews from critics.
- Dev Patel began training in Taekwando when he was 10 years old. He earned a 1st dan black belt in March 2006 at the age of 16.
- Dev Patel’s directorial debut.
- The film was originally meant to be released straight-to-streaming on Netflix until Jordan Peele saw the film.
- He had a feeling that it deserved a theatrical release instead.
- He acquired it from Netflix under his Monkeypaw Productions banner, which has a distribution deal with Universal Pictures.
- Dev Patel suffered a number of injuries during the filming of the movie which included a broken hand, two broken toes, a torn shoulder, and an eye infection.
- Due to budget cuts, multiple shots were filmed with GoPros and iPhones.
- Due to budget cuts, multiple shots were filmed with GoPros and iPhones.
- Inspired by Patel’s love of Bruce Lee movies, Korean movies, Bollywood titles and tales his grandfather told him as a child.
- While introducing the film at its SXSW premiere, Dev Patel said he feels the action genre has been abused by the system. He went on saying, “You know, a quick buck. Mindless shit. I wanted to give it soul. Real trauma. Real pain. You guys deserve that. I wanted to infuse it with a little bit of culture.”
- The film’s description is ”John Wick in Mumbai”.
- Originally meant to shoot on location in India in early 2020, before production was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ended up filming in Indonesia in early 2021.
- Volker Bertelmann originally composed the score for the film, however he was replaced by Jed Kurzel with an entirely new score shortly after Monkeypaw bought the film from Netflix.
- Patel lost the film’s gaffer during production from a heart attack.
- In the United States and Canada, Monkey Man was released alongside The First Omen.
- It is projected to gross around $12 million in its opening weekend.
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 121 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.0/10.
- The website’s consensus reads: “An audacious effort from debuting director Dev Patel, Monkey Man dispenses action and sociopolitical commentary with equal aplomb.”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.
- Peter Bradshaw writing for The Guardian awarded the film four stars out of five, reserving praise for Patel’s performance and calling it a “stylish and exciting action thriller, which doubles as a boisterous satire of Modi-esque nationalism”.
- Tim Robey of The Telegraph awarded the film three stars out of five, writing that “The actor’s directorial debut is an astonishingly violent, expertly staged John Wick-in-Mumbai slugfest” but questioned whether it was “a waste of his talents”.
- The movie had its Sydney premiere on April 2, 2024, attended by Patel and his partner, Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey, and was released in Australian cinemas on April 4.
- Initially gearing up to shoot on location in India in early 2020, the film was postponed and nearly canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Dev Patel then opted to shoot the film on a small island in Batam, Indonesia
- Jed Kurzel composed a new score for the film, replacing original composer Volker Bertelmann.
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