Tony Shalhoub and Andy Breckman discuss bringing Mr. Monk’s Last Case to life

We sat down with Andy Breckman and Tony Shalhoub to talk about Mr. Monk’s Last Case, including why it became a movie and not a show.

When it comes to classic crime dramas, Monk is always going to be a beloved series. Tony Shalhoub brought Adrian Monk to life, making us fall in love with his obsessive-compulsive ways by giving us a chance to empathize.

If you were like me, you would have wondered what Monk would have done in the pandemic. How would he be afterward? Well, that’s what Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie gave us a look at.

We got the chance to talk to Shalhoub and creator Andy Breckman about the creation of this Monk revival. We talked about how the project came about and why the decision was a movie over another season of the series.

Tony Shalhoub and Andy Breckman discuss stepping up the game

It would have been easy to fall into the same old, same old as the TV series. However, this movie brought some of the nostalgia while bringing something new for the times. What were those discussions like going into Mr. Monk’s Last Case?

Shalhoub: We all decided that we had to beat what we did before…if we came in under that finale, that would be a mistake. We felt so proud of that finale, the ratings were wonderful, and we thought we definitely had to do that last season. So, we just wanted to raise the bar and Andy came up with a beautiful premise, and the way he pitched it was perfect.

It was about spreading the range. It was all about bringing in the familiarity of the series that fans had come to know, but stepping up the game. That was what Shalhoub wanted coming into this project.

Breckman: Yeah, I think raising the stakes was important. Also the production values. We had some actions scenes that we probably couldn’t do if it was just another episode. We wanted to feel like close to a feature film.

It helped that Peacock made sure they had the budget and time to create exactly what the team wanted.

Andy Breckman talks about the decision for a Monk movie

Fans are used to a TV series. Why not bring a shortened season to tell a story? Why a movie? It turns out that was more to do with the phone call Breckman got when it came to this revival.

Breckman: The phone call I got from NBC Universal was ‘is there a feature movie that you guys can produce.’ If they had asked for a limited series, it would have been a different conversation, but I think between Tony, myself, and our partners, we could have cobbled a pitch together…but the mandate we got was let’s try to do a 90-minute movie.

Developing Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie

During the pandemic, many of us wondered how our favorite characters would deal with the situation. Monk was one of mine, and we got a chance to see that in the movie. What were the conversations around that?

Shalhoub: During the pandemic, in the early days, Peacock asked us to do a public service announcement with all the characters. Andy wrote up this piece, which we actually shot in my apartment in New York and had the other characters on Zoom, and it was about how the characters were reacting. It was a public service announcement…the reaction to that was so positive, it inspired them and Andy to [tell the story].

Breckman: It was in effect, a four-minute pilot. It was a proof of concept for us.

It turns out that Shalhoub did the PSA in his apartment with his wife shooting it.

Check out the full interview in the video below:

Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie is now available to stream on Peacock.