Dev Patel Says MONKEY MAN "Faced Absolute Catastrophe" Every Day and Shares Its Production Challenges

Dev Patel upcoming action movie Monkey Man looks freakin’ awesome! But this was not an easy film for Patel to make. During a Reddit AMA, the actor and director Patel revealed that Monkey Man was the “the most demanding thing I’ve ever done in my life” because “everyday we faced absolute catastrophe.”

Patel then went on to talk about all of the issues that he faced while making the movie, and after hearing them, it’s pretty insane that he actually managed to pull off making the film! The funding was nearly pulled, they lost their locations, their camera’s broke, and at one point it was “basically dead.”

Patel shared: “I begged our financier not to shut us down a few weeks before principal photography. We were meant to shoot in India then COVID hit. I lost my initial production designer and [cinematographer] and the film was basically dead, then we pivoted and went to a tiny island in Indonesia where we could create a bubble in an empty hotel for the whole crew of nearly 500 people. It was a grueling nine months of absolute joy and utter chaos.”

He continued: “All of the locations we prepped for months at — we lost day of — so we had to adapt last minute. The borders closed also, so I couldn’t bring in lots of supporting characters. I ended up having to put every tailor, lighting guy, accountant etc. in front of the camera. Speaking of cameras, most of our equipment broke and we couldn’t fly in new stuff so we literally shot stuff on my mobile phone, go pros — when a crane broke we ended [up] creating this camera rig from rope which I termed the ‘pendulum cam,’ which swings over a large crowd of people then detaches and the operators run through the crowd whilst it was rolling.”

Patel went on to say that there were days when his production designer said the production “literally didn’t have any money” to finish certain sets. He also revealed that “One of our producers ran his personal credit card to buy the glass to cover the table tops” in one of the big main 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 break away tables so once I would perform a huge bulk of stunts I would scream CUT and then immediately all of us would get on our hands and knees looking for all of the broken pieces of wood to glue the tables back together for the next shot. In a very long nutshell, every obstacle provided us with a new opportunity to innovate. BOOM!”

That’s insane! This 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 is going to be a big success!

The story is “Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash.

“After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.”

Jordan Peele produced the project, and it was originally supposed to be released on Netflix, but the film was so damn amazing that Peele pushed for the film to get a full-on theatrical release because it’s a movie that was meant to be experienced on the big screen.

The description for the film says, “Patel achieves an astonishing, tour-de-force feature directing debut with an action thriller about one man’s quest for vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.”

Patel also developed the original story and wrote the screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World).

The movie is said to be packed with thrilling and spectacular fight and chase scenes, and the film’s international cast includes Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sobhita Dhulipala (Made in Heaven), Pitobash (Million Dollar Arm), Vipin Sharma (Hotel Mumbai), Ashwini Kalsekar (Ek Tha Hero), Adithi Kalkunte (Hotel Mumbai), 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 (Nope, Get Out), Win Rosenfeld (Candyman, Hunters series), Ian Cooper (Nope, Us), Basil Iwanyk (John Wick franchise, Sicario films), Erica Lee (John Wick franchise, Silent Night), Christine Haebler (Shut In, Bones of Crows) and Anjay Nagpal (executive producer of Bombshell, Greyhound). Serving as executive producers are Jonathan Fuhrman, Natalya Pavchinskya, Aaron L. Gilbert, Andria Spring, Alison-Jane Roney and Steven Thibault.

Monkey Man will be released only in theaters on April 5, 2024.