After nearly two decades of work in front of the camera, Dev Patel has crafted his directorial debut with the actioner Monkey Man. The Jordan Peele-produced feature, from Patel’s own story and screenplay he collaborated on with Paul Angunawela and John Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), will arrive just a few weeks after its SXSW premiere, and now a new trailer has landed.
Here’s the synopsis: “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.”
As John Fink said in his SXSW review, “With a premise that is as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be, Monkey Man anoints Dev Patel as a new action director and star. Filmed on location in Mumbai and Indonesia in the height of the COVID pandemic and saved from a Netflix direct-to-streaming deal by Jordan Peele and Universal, this film about reinvention bursts with the same frenetic energy of a Danny Boyle or John Woo picture, with Patel––co-writer, director, star, and sometimes camera operator––throwing everything he has at the screen, and then some.”
Also starring Sharlto Copley, Sobhita Dhulipala, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte, Sikandar Kher, and Makarand Deshpande, the second trailer is below.
Monkey Man opens on April 5.