How Did Monkey Man Swing From Netflix to Universal?

Monkey Man, the directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, synthesizes Asian martial-arts movies and Hindu imagery for an action-revenge drama in the vein of John Wick. But its release this Friday from Universal Pictures wasn’t always the plan. The film was originally billed as a Netflix Original before it got bumped off the streamer’s annual release calendar — twice. Then, without warning, an electric first trailer dropped in January along with news of a wide theatrical rollout, thanks to producer Jordan Peele, the director of Get Out. It appears that at some point, Netflix backed out and sold the film to Universal. One report claims the streamer’s reluctance was rooted in anxieties over the film’s depiction of the political landscape in India, where the story is set.

Monkey Man sees Patel’s unnamed character (referred to as “Kid”) going on a revenge spree against the corrupt operatives of an Indian political party who attacked his village when he was a child. Set in Yatana — a fictional version of Mumbai — the movie’s villain is the head of a right-wing religious movement and has financial ties to the aforementioned party. As Kid fights his way up the party’s structure, Patel’s lens widens to capture hints of poverty and fanaticism in ways that reflect India’s current climate of religious extremism. Patel may not always succeed in his critique of authoritarianism, but that critique may have been direct enough to influence the film’s trajectory behind the scenes, including its jump from Netflix to Universal and even more recent changes, as seen in the movie’s trailers.

October 29, 2018: The world first gets word of Patel’s plans a few days before the American Film Market, where his revenge-thriller concept will be presented to potential buyers ahead of filming. According to Variety, Monkey Man is set to follow a character who “emerges from prison to grapple with a world marred by ‘corporate greed and eroding spiritual values.’” The latter half of that description is accurate to the final film, though there’s no prison plotline.

January 22, 2020: Patel makes a trip to Mumbai to scout shooting locations. According to the Mumbai Mirror, he also plans to meet with potential producers. Meanwhile, the forthcoming pandemic looms.

October 21, 2020: As Monkey Man gears up to shoot, the Times of India reports that because of India’s rising COVID cases, the production will move to Indonesia instead.

December 16, 2020: Cameras finally roll on Monkey Man in the Indonesian city of Batam.

December 18, 2020: Patel breaks his hand on set, as revealed by the actor-director at the film’s SXSW premiere. This kicks off a grueling filming process — as he further detailed in a recent Reddit Q&A — involving everything from swinging cameras around on ropes to gluing together the pieces of breakaway tables in between takes.

February 3, 2021: Volker Bertelmann is hired as the film’s composer. Bertelmann, who records under the name Hauschka, also wrote the music for the Patel-starring Lion. He does not end up being the credited composer on Monkey Man.

February 26, 2021: After more than three months in Indonesia, Monkey Man wraps production.

March 12, 2021: With filming complete, streaming giant Netflix strikes a $30 million deal at the European Film Market, the Berlin Film Festival’s annual bazaar connecting producers with buyers and investors. Deadline reports that the movie is backed by companies Bron Studios (Joker) and Thunder Road Pictures (John Wick), while an industry insider describes Patel’s footage as “John Wick in Mumbai.”

March 12, 2021: Deadline also reveals the movie’s supporting cast: Hollywood actor Sharlto Copley (District 9) and Indian stars Sobhita Dhulipala (Made in Heaven), Sikander Kher (Woodstock Villa), and Pitobash Tripathy (Million Dollar Arm).

February 3, 2022: With postproduction underway, Netflix announces Monkey Man as part of its 2022 release slate. The news, relayed via the company’s blog Tudum, includes the “prison” tidbit as part of the film’s synopsis.

April 15, 2022: The Times of India reports there are plans for additional shoot dates in India involving Dhulipala and Kher.

August 25, 2022: The additional production wraps in Mumbai.

January 23, 2023: After the rest of 2022 passes without an update on the film’s release, Monkey Man is announced as one of Netflix’s 2023 releases with the same logline.

Sometime before July 2023: Bertelmann is replaced as composer, according to a postproduction source who spoke with Vulture. Jed Kurzel is the film’s final credited composer, but this source claims he was actually the third composer hired for the movie. The band Son Lux (which worked on Everything Everywhere All at Once) was brought in to work on the score but was replaced within about a month. Son Lux’s reps had no comment on the group’s involvement.

Also before July 2023: Netflix decides to return Monkey Man to its producers.

July 2023: By this point in the year, talent agency CAA (which represents both Patel and Thunder Road) has begun shopping Monkey Man as a sales title, according to a source in the world of film-festival programming.

January 26, 2024: The first trailer for Monkey Man drops, courtesy of Universal Pictures. This is the first time it’s publicly revealed that Netflix is no longer distributing the movie. Deadline reports the film is being released through Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, which has a deal with Universal, noting that Peele “was taken by Patel’s vision and felt the film deserved a big-screen release.” There’s no mention of why Netflix decided to let the movie go.

January 27, 2024: The blog World of Reel reports that Netflix sold off the film because the depiction of its villain, a Hindu nationalist politician, might draw the ire of India’s Hindu right-wing extremists, who support the country’s current majority government. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.

March 11, 2024: Monkey Man premieres at SXSW to a standing ovation (though this critic was less enthused). The film’s plot appears to have changed from its initial synopsis; there is no story line about Kid’s time in prison.

March 21, 2024: As hype builds, Universal releases a second trailer.

March 23, 2024: Twitter user @computer_atulya notices a minor change with major implications between the two trailers for the film so far. In the first trailer, the posters for the film’s fictitious political party are orange — or saffron — a color associated with Hinduism and frequently used to represent right-wing Hindutva/Hindu nationalist movements. In the second trailer, and in the final film, these posters have been edited to appear red, leading to speculation that Universal might be hoping to soften potential blowback. Universal declined to comment on this change.

March 31, 2024: Monkey Man’s planned April 19 theatrical release in India — a date that appeared on ticketing websites but was intended as a “placeholder,” according to a Universal spokesperson — is delayed, Bollywood Hungama reports. The movie hasn’t yet undergone the censorship certification required of all theatrical films released in India, but the report notes that this process is “expected to take time.” On Twitter, Universal Pictures India posts an update that the film will arrive “in cinemas soon.” Whether it makes it to Indian theaters in one piece, or at all, remains to be seen.

April 5, 2024: On the day Monkey Man hits theaters in the U.S., the Wrap reports that Netflix dropped the movie because “its political undertones may have spooked the streamer.” The film is expected to make $13–14 million in its opening weekend.