On the auspicious day of Hanuman Jayanti, Dev Patel's critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man, which was inspired by the legend of Lord Hanuman, is now available to purchase or rent on Digital HD platforms, and to commemorate the release, we were recently able to catch up with mask designer and Deity Creative founder Eddie Yang (Iron Man; The Dark Knight; Man of Steel) to talk about conceptualizing and designing Patel's instantly iconic monkey mask for the film.
Yang breaks down his highly detailed process as well as his initial conversations with Patel on the kind of mask the star-turned-director wanted for the film. He also gets into his VFX background and his previous work at the Stan Winston Studio. Plus, in addition to our informative conversation, we also have exclusive photos from Yang's mask design process, which you can view at the bottom of this page.
To date, Dev Patel's directorial debut has grossed over $28.4 million globally on a modest $10 million production budget, making it one of this year's biggest box office success stories. Monkey Man is still in playing in theaters, so we'd highly recommend checking out on the biggest screen possible, but with the feature also now available at home, you have multiple options to check out arguably the best action movie of the year!
The film's synopsis reads, "Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him."
Watch our full interview with Eddie Yang below and/or keep scrolling to read the full transcript! Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: First off, just for our readers, what were your responsibilities on this film?
EDDIE: It was designing the mask. A friend of mine had recommended the project to me, and we had some of the best people working on it in the industry. Jerry Roscoe sculpted the mask, Amy did the hair on it, and Vanessa helped out with the hair. So, we had an A-list team on this mask, and it was pretty cool - working with Dev as well. I was a big fan of his.
ROHAN: I know the story is inspired by Hanuman, but you go in a slightly different direction than how he's typically depicted. What were your initial conversations with Dev about the kind of mask he wanted?
EDDIE: Yeah, and a lot of that's Dev. He came to us with a very strong image in his head, and also images of this Halloween mask. It was kind of a cheaper, lower quality mask, so and, I learned early on, you know, don't question the director. He's got a very strong vision and like, Hey, if this is what you want, you know, we can either make this or just use this, you know, just buy it. So, we were kind of having conversations going back and forth of the degree of quality, because the character also can only afford probably something of not the highest quality, let's say, in Hollywood production. So, a lot of it was the little nuances of how far we go, how realistic it is, and well sculpted and produced it is, versus let's say the lower end storebought version. He was the guiding force behind all of that, and that's how we came to what it looked like.
ROHAN: The film has so many stunning masks and costumes - did you look to the larger Ramayana for inspiration or were you staying focused on one direction?
EDDIE: Yeah, we were mainly focused on the Monkey Man mask, but I did offer up some designs that were simian-like, but using Indian influences, like maybe a blue paint job that's cracked, maybe with some of the red accents and gold and stuff like that, but he was very specific that he wanted it to look, you know, very similar to like a monkey. So, we did some exploration in that direction, but he brought us back to making it a little more realistic.
ROHAN: How many different variations of the mask did you experiment with?
EDDIE: Yeah, there were several. I think we did like 30 to 50 designs, because when you would think of a primate, it's pretty typical, but they can look so different. It could be more chimp-like, it could more ape-like, the skin color can go from the black darker skin of the ape to the flesh color chimp to different hair colors and so on. There's quite a bit of variations that it could have gone down, and we did offer up a lot of those designs, and then he kind of steered us back to this is what he was envisioning.
ROHAN: Were you and Dev always going for the lighter skin tone, which eventually gets darker cause of the bloodshed, or were you playing around with different colors?
EDDIE: Yeah, he liked the lighter skin, the more flesh tone, with some skin tones as dark as gorillas. Then, he wanted to see what it looked like with blood on it. You probably can't see too clearly in the movie, but there's like stitches and threads, and it's kind of falling apart and all that stuff.
ROHAN: You have a background in VFX and special effects, how does that inform your work as a mask designer and working with practical effects?
EDDIE: Yeah, basically, with every director it’s different, and I like to start by offering a lot of different variations and go down several paths and just see if something might click with them that they really like, versus what they're specifically seeing in their head. So, a lot of times, I'll try something crazy, and they'll either say no, no, no, or oh my god, I didn't think about that, and let's try that, you know. And then, after I do that - actually, I design in 3D, so it's a lot quicker, and we can offer a lot of variations very quickly, a nd then, because you design in 3D, you can go right into production, you can use the actual 3D model, and you can print it out, or you have a wonderful sculptor like Joey and you can copy it exactly, he’s like a machine. But yeah, that's usually my process anyways, I prefer doing things digitally for the speed and efficiency.
ROHAN: What's the turnaround time between designing the initial mask and then getting it into production and getting it ready for shooting?
EDDIE: Basically, you know, usually the bigger the budget, you have a little more time, with more time you have the ability to finesse. Designs can take days or weeks, and then, once that design phase is over, you go right into production and sculptures and 3D models are printing. It’s insane, it's like weeks, it could be anywhere from one to four weeks to do a sculpture depending on how big it is, or if it's a head or body suit. Yeah, and then, you make molds off of it, you get a casting, whatever it's supposed to be, is it supposed to be rubber, is it supposed to be hard plastic, is it supposed to be fiberglass? There's a paint process and finishing and with something like this, there was a lot of hair work on it, so we had to schedule time for that
ROHAN: The mask has a very real look and feel to it, what was it actually made of? Were you using real gorilla hair?
EDDIE: Yeah, so basically it's supposed to look like a mask, right? So, it just happens that using latex mask rubber, which is what they used to make Halloween masks happens to be extremely durable. So, it would stand up to all the stunt work and everything they had. So, it kind of worked out really well. It was basically just a latex mask, and then, we had hair that we glued on it, that usually comes on a fabric base, but that edge looks pretty significant, and we wanted to tone that down. So, we had Amy Maccabiah come in and kind of punch in individual hairs on the edge, so it would soften it a little bit, which you would not see necessarily on a mask that a character like this in the film could afford necessarily, but we kind of wanted it to be a little bit higher quality. Yeah, so we went through the trouble of doing that.
ROHAN: At the beginning of your career, you were working with the Stan Winston Studio, who obviously did iconic work on Jurassic Park and Predator - what was that experience like? And how does it sort of inform your decisions today?
EDDIE: Oh, yeah, I mean, like every career, you pick up knowledge, skill, you learn from mistakes, you screw up along the way in your youth, and then, you know, all of that adds to your experience. So, that now, with my own studio, I'm able to efficiently create things very quickly, know what not to do, deliver it on schedule, or ahead of schedule, for the correct budget. So, with all of that expertise, experience, it really just fine tunes everything so that you're able to deliver it efficiently, you know, to studios that are putting a lot of money into their productions, and they can't have somebody screw up or deliver late or something like that. So, yeah, you can pretty much foretell the future now and know exactly the path you should take. So, that experience definitely helps with that.
Oscar® nominee Dev Patel (Lion, Slumdog Millionaire) achieves an astonishing, tour-de-force feature directing debut with an action thriller about one man’s quest for vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash.
After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Packed with thrilling and spectacular fight and chase scenes, Monkey Man is directed by Dev Patel from his original story and his screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World).
The film’s international cast includes Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sobhita Dhulipala (Made in Heaven), Pitobash (Million Dollar Arm), Vipin Sharma (Hotel Mumbai), Ashwini Kalsekar (Ek Tha Hero), Adithi Kalkunte (Hotel Mumbai), Sikandar Kher (Aarya) and Makarand Deshpande (RRR).
Monkey Man is now available to rent or buy at home!