Dev Patel is continuing to establish his triple threat filmmaking skills, coming on board to write, direct and star in The Peasant, a unique period action thriller from Fifth Season and Thunder Road Pictures. Patel will also produce via his Minor Realm production shingle.
The project reunites Patel with Thunder Road, which produced Monkey Man, his feature directorial debut, which he also co-wrote and in which he starred.
An adrenalized revenge thriller, the project is being described as having shades of Braveheart and John Wick as well as notes of King Arthur as it mashes up medieval knights with feudal India.
Set in the 1300s, it centers on a shepherd who embarks on a rage-fueled campaign against a group of mercenary knights who ransacked his community, revealing himself to be more than he seems.
Fifth Season, which is financing the feature as well as producing it, initially developed the project with Will Dunn, a writer on Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel. The project had generated considerable heat and even landed on the 2023 Black List, the annual directory of most popular unproduced screenplays.
Under Patel’s guidance, the setting is being changed from its Italian setting and the character’s pope-connected backstory to an India that is colorfully vibrant and almost mystical. Patel and Dunn are collaborating on the new drafts. The creatives and producers are hoping the feature can launch a franchise.
Thunder Road knows its way around a good revenge and action franchise as the banner is behind the mega-successful Wick movies. The prolific company also counts the gritty Sicario movies and has action movie Fight or Flight, starring Josh Hartnett, hitting theaters in May.
Firth Season’s film division, led by Christopher Slager, develops, produces, finances and distributes a broad range of movies, from comedies such as 80 for Brady and The Book Club to action movies including the Michael Bay-directed Ambulance and David Ayer’s A Working Man to critical darlings Flora & Son and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter. Next up for the company is comedy Friendship, starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, which A24 opens May 9.
Patel’s directorial debut was also a revenge action thriller set in India. Set in modern times, Monkey Man tells of a man who infiltrates a night club in order to exact vengeance on the man who killed his mother years earlier. It was released by Universal last year.
Patel, who last starred in British drama Rabbit Trap, is repped by CAA, Curtis Brown and Sol22. Dunn is repped by Verve and Think Tank.
