"It's definitely been a really fun season... Really proud of the group. I think [we] proved a lot of people wrong and we always believed in each other here [...] We're excited for what's coming up for us, but I think we can sit back a bit now and just look good at the year we had and we definitely can be proud of that."
“Monkey Man” was shot and completed in 2021, and Netflix soon after acquired the rights for around $30 million, but it’s been on the shelf for three years and they‘ve all of a sudden decided to get rid of it? What gives?
It turns out, according to an in-the-know source, that it was the portrayal of a fictional right-wing Hindu Nationalist character in the film that worried Netflix about their future dealings in India. And even though they had paid more than twice the production cost, they decided to give the film back to the producers, which is what caused the long delay.
Universal and Peele eventually took a particular liking to the film, so much so that they suggested possible editing changes and delayed the release until what they thought would be the right date.
It’s as simple as that. In the end, it was all about politics and optics for the streaming giant, especially since India has become the current top growth market for Netflix. Co-Founder Reed Hastings has mentioned that a majority of the service's next 100 million subscribers would most likely come from India.
Universal/Jordan Peele's "suggested possible editing changes" in question:
I was eating sweet potatoes, salmon, and lettuce 3 times a day for 9 months. And that’s it. You know, sometimes cubed, sometimes in a strip of salmon, but that was it. That was tough.
"It's definitely been a wild eighteen months. You know, I played at World Championships, went to two Final Fours with Michigan, two... three World Juniors, and in here. So it's been a crazy ride and looking for some time to chill, and really refresh and reflect... I've loved my time here."
I really didn’t think anyone was gonna show up [to the Monkey Man screening at SXSW]. We were on our way there in the car and there was a queue three blocks down. And I was like, “is the Ryan Gosling film showing tonight?” And they’re like, “no, they’re here for you.”