Dev Patel is due to make his directorial debut with Monkey Man, and at long last, the action thriller film now has a first trailer.
Produced by Jordan Peele via his Monkeypaw Productions, Monkey Man stars Patel as the Kid, a young man whose family was murdered by corrupt, wealthy societal higher-ups. At the film’s outset, Patel’s character earns a living getting beaten by seasoned brawlers in an underground fight club while donning a monkey mask.
A longline for the film reads, “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.”
First announced 2018, Patel’s Monkey Man was slated to premiere on Netflix in 2022 after the streamer acquired the film’s rights the year prior. However, Peele “was taken by Patel’s vision and felt the film deserved a big-screen release” [via Deadline] upon viewing the project himself. You can watch the trailer below.
Monkey Man arrives in theatres April 5. Last year, Patel appeared in Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.