Dev Patel Says Jordan Peele Saved 'Monkey Man' From Streaming

By Andrew Sanford | Film | April 5, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Film | April 5, 2024 |

Monkey Man releases in theaters today. The action thriller film marks the directorial debut of Dev Patel, who also co-wrote the film and will star in it. The buzz around the movie has been palpable. Early response has been positive. It looks like a surefire hit that will get a chance to light up the big screens with gritty, revolutionary action. That almost wasn’t the case.

Patel’s directorial debut was initially going to stream on Netflix. The streamer purchased rights to the $10 million film for three times its budget. However, Netflix got cold feet and decided to shop the Monkey Man around. Eventually, Universal would purchase theatrical rights to the film, choosing to bring it to the big screen. They wouldn’t have made that choice were it not for Jordan Peele.

Peele saw the film, decided it deserved a theatrical release, and convinced Universal Studios to purchase it. Patel told Deadline that Jordan Peele “took us from this thing that was brushed under the carpet to putting us on top of the mantelpiece.” It’s been known for some time that Peele saved the film, but now, on the tail of its release, Dev Patel has offered more details as to why he thinks the Get Out director wanted to help.

“He saw the film; Jordan saw me as a filmmaker, someone broken out, like what he did with his amazing comedy show and became this filmmaker,” Patel told Deadline. “He understood the strength of using genre to talk about more interesting motif things, societal issues, using it as a trojan horse.” This tracks with Peele’s own filmography. The Writer/Director has frequently used Genre films to carry deeper messaging. If he was inspired enough by Monkey Man to ensure it got into theaters, there must be a lot more to it than meets the eye (and what meets the eye is already exciting).