Universal‘s bender of a weekend continued into Monday night with the enthusiastic premiere of Monkeypaw’s Dev Patel feature directorial debut, Monkey Man, which blew the roof off the Paramount Theatre.
SXSW isn’t known for giving standing ovations, but Dev Patel –the movie’s director, producer, writer and action star– got a well deserved one for his bloodied portrayal of a young man avenging his mother’s death from a crooked mobster and dignitary.
The movie based on the mythology of Hanuman, was inspired by Patel’s love of Bruce Lee movies, Korean movies and tales his grandfather told him as a child.
Monkey Man follows one man’s quest for vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless. The India-set pic is inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage. Patel plays the 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.
Patel shot the movie against all obstacles during Covid. He even lost his gaffer during production from a heart attack. Patel broke his foot two weeks before shooting, and during filming, broke his hand, too. “You can see in the film, there’s a wrap on my hand,” said Patel indicating the cameo of his injured hand. He even did a kitchen fight scene, one-handed.
Jordan Peele was on hand to introduce Patel.
Universal acquired the movie in turnaround from Netflix. It’s getting a big theatrical release on April 5. Originally, it was reported that Netflix bought global on the movie for $30M. Peele saw the movie, and believed it deserved a big screen theatrical release.
Not only did Uni have the Oscar Best Picture winner in Oppenheimer yesterday, but a big No. 1 film opening in Kung Fu Panda 4 ($58M), and now the first of two big premieres at SXSW. Tomorrow night, Universal will unveil their summer blast-off movie, Fall Guy, with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.
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