By: John M Jerva

Netflix isn’t slowing down at all when it comes to acquiring new original film content for its service. One solid take on this is that they are paying heavy focus to a bevy of international action projects too which is a win for genre fans like myself.

The newest report announces that Netflix has recently acquired the action-thriller Monkey Man which stars Dav Petal (Slumdog Millionaire, The Green Knight) and is the actor’s debut directorial effort. The report also states that the streaming giant has bought the film for a whopping $30 million and change.

Set in India, Monkey Man sees Patel playing an unlikely hero who emerges from prison to take on a world enmeshed in corporate greed and eroding spiritual values, seeking revenge from those who took everything from him many years ago. The script is by Patel, Paul Angunawela (“Keith Lemon: The Film”), and John Collee, who co-wrote “Hotel Mumbai,” which also starred Patel.

Additional cast members include Sharlto Copley (Ted K, District 9) and Sobhita Dhulipala (Ghost Stories). Patel also serves as a producer on the film along with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, Jomon Thomas, Samarth Sahni, Christine Haebler and Anjay Nagpal. Thunder Road’s Jonathan Fuhrman, BRON’s Aaron L. Gilbert, Creative Wealth’s Jason Cloth, BRON’s Steven Thibault and Natalya Pavchinskaya all serve as executive producers on the anticipated project.

“I’m so thrilled to be partnering with Netflix on this adventure,” said Patel. “I hope this will be a fresh addition to the genre at a time in this industry where my story can become our story. Shooting a film during a pandemic has been quite challenging to say the least, but the opportunity to reimagine stories from my childhood and infuse them with my love of action cinema has been an absolute joy. Big love to Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee for championing us from the very beginning and Aaron Gilbert and the team at BRON for giving an unproven filmmaker like myself a voice.”

The film has a pretty solid heavy action theme to it and it’ll be interesting to see how Patel handles himself in the set pieces. The versatile actor is mostly known for deep dramatic fair so the jury’s out on whether he can pull off the anti-hero, one man army.

Netflix plans on releasing Patel’s debut effort sometime this year.

Keep it locked and loaded right here for more details to follow on Monkey Man as we are your destination for everything action in 2022 and beyond!

Source: Variety

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