‘I was ready to say goodbye to my movie’: Why didn’t Monkey Man hit theaters?

Twelve years ago, Dev Patel starred in Cherry and the first season of The Newsroom. It may be unrelated, but it was also around 2012 that he started thinking about what would become Ape Man, his first work.

A revenge story accompanied by an action film with political overtones, angry form and content that has overcome more than one obstacle in our theaters this Wednesday, April 17.

Theaters for which the feature film was not originally intended. Because Monkey Man was supposed to be produced by Netflix and put on an online platform before it changed its mind. “Then I was ready to say goodbye to my film”Dev Patel tells us when we meet him in London. “I was very sad because I thought it was going to stay on the shelf for a long time.”

The feature film owes its salvation to Jordan Peele and his company Monkeypaw, who saw in Monkey Man an opus that perfectly fits their editorial line, which combines genre cinema and political discourse. and allowed it to be released theatrically.

“I broke my hand while shooting the first action scene”

We can more than imagine Dev Patel’s relief at the new director on the set. And even in advance, because he broke his leg two weeks before filming. Before doing it again, with a broken arm while filming his first action scene.

Add to that technical problems, filming locations that were ultimately requested by the military or a budget that didn’t allow for any delays, and you can see that Monkey Man’s production had an air of obstacles. Which echoes the trajectory of his hero.

But all’s well that ends well for Dev Patel: even if he tells us that he can no longer play the piano due to a hand injury, which he did not want to treat immediately, so as not to stop filming, the child can be seen in theaters. And this is the best action movie of recent years.

Comments collected by Maximilien Pierrette in London on 26 March 2024 – Editing by Alexandre Ear