Netflix picks up directorial debut from Dev Patel

(Image credit: The Weinstein Company)

Dev Patel's directorial debut, Monkey Man, has found a home at Netflix, Deadline reports. The streamer reportedly paid $30 million for the revenge thriller, which Patel also co-wrote and stars in.

Filming on the movie has just finished and it's been described as "John Wick in Mumbai." Patel plays 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 years before.

"I’m so thrilled to be partnering with Netflix on this adventure," Patel said in a statement. "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."

After a role in UK teen drama Skins, the actor achieved international acclaim back in 2008 in Danny Boyle's drama Slumdog Millionaire. More recently, Patel starred in The Personal History of David Copperfield, Armando Iannucci's re-telling of the classic Charles Dickens tale, and we can next see him on the big screen as the lead in The Green Knight, an epic medieval fantasy movie co-starring Alicia Vikander and Joel Edgerton.