Monkey Man was originally expected to stream on Netflix — but Jordan Peele gave Dev Patel‘s feature directorial debut a different fate, and sent it to the big screen.
The Slumdog Millionaire actor was aglow about Peele at the Los Angeles premiere of Monkey Man Wednesday night at the TCL Chinese Theatre. “He took us from this thing that was brushed under the carpet to putting us on top of the mantel piece,” Patel said yesterday.
How did Monkey Man go from $30M Netflix pick-up to the big screen? Sources tell us the streamer after buying the movie found it too gritty for the Indian market, and was quietly shopped it around.
However, then Monkey Man‘s co-financier Bron Studio was hit with bankruptcy, which held up the movie from finding a home until Peele rescued it.
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