Dev Patel looks to be combining elements from Monkey Man and The Green Knight for The Peasant. More here.
Anybody who’s seen David Lowery’s 2021 Arthurian adventure The Green Knight will know just how capable Dev Patel is at capturing the audience’s imagination as he travels through strange and mystical lands in search of adventure. Likewise, Monkey Man, Patel’s 2024 tilt at becoming an action star (and also a director) broadened his capabilities as a leading man.
In the newly announced The Peasant, it looks like the actor will be taking elements of both roles and fashioning them into a new role that – at this early stage – sounds fascinating.
The Peasant will once again see Patel both direct and star, this time in a tale set in 1300s India. It’s a revenge movie, by the sounds of things, with Patel’s shepherd hunting down a group of knights who “ransacked his community,” according to The Hollywood Reporter’s brief plot description.
References such as Braveheart, John Wick and Arthurian legend are being put out there to give us an idea of the direction that Patel is taking things in. He’s also working with a Black List script from Ms Marvel's Will Dunn. The Black List being the prestigious shortlist of what are considered to be the best unproduced scripts floating around Hollywood.
Read more: Monkey Man | Dev Patel’s directorial debut is a flawed passion project
With Dev Patel starring, directing and producing, he and Dunn are collaborating on a fresh draft which has moved the action from Italy to India, giving things a a ‘colourfully vibrant and almost mystical’ feel.
We can certainly see how – despite the difference in time period – the John Wick films (especially the later entries) could make for a useful visual reference here. The slick use of colour and the gilded world in which the titular assassin and his contemporaries live in could translate really well to feudal India. Mashed up artistically with the pomp and pageantry of medieval romance, with knights in shining armour and vivid banners complimenting a culture famed for its vibrancy.
Fifth Season and Thunder Road are behind the project, with the only fly in the ointment being the early suggestion that this could be a franchise launcher. Hmmm. Let’s hope that any revisions to what sounds like a fantastic script focus entirely on making the film as tight as it can be rather than trying to build out future entries. We’ll certainly bring you more as we hear it.
