Dev Patel has been set to make his feature directing debut with action revenge pic Monkey Man. The Oscar nominee will also star in the film, with Endeavor Content launching sales at this week’s American Film Market. Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk is producing with Xeitgeist’s Joe Thomas (The Man Who Knew Infinity, Hotel Mumbai), Samarth Sahni (Hotel Mumbai) and Patel. Production is set to start in spring 2019 in Mumbai.

The script is by Patel, Paul Angunawela and John Collee (Hotel Mumbai, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) and was developed with the assistance of S’ya Concept.

Set in contemporary India, Monkey Man follows the Kid (Patel) who emerges from prison to take on a world enmeshed in corporate greed and eroding spiritual values. Iwanyk calls it a “vibrant, thrilling and above all entertaining story.”

Action sequences will be choreographed and designed by 87Eleven (the John Wick movies, Atomic Blonde). It and Old Boy‘s Chung-hoon Chung will serve as director of photography

Slumdog Millionaire breakout Patel won a BAFTA for 2016’s Lion, also scoring Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. He recently completed filming The Personal History of David Copperfield starring Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie, and will next be seen in Hotel Mumbai and The Wedding Guest, both releasing in 2019. He’s repped by WME, Magnolia, Curtis Brown Group and Jamie Feldman.