Road House is a movie about all-out brawls, and that appears to be what’s happening behind-the-scenes, too. Not literally, of course, but figuratively, as director Doug Liman has been publicly calling out Amazon by boycotting his own film.
The trouble began in late 2023 when the fight to give the Road House remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal a theatrical release started ratcheting up. Producer Joel Silver was reportedly ousted under bizarre circumstances stemming from internal friction over the streaming release strategy, and not long after, Liman and Gyllenhaal reportedly screened the movie on Jeff Bezos’ yacht in a fruitless effort to get the film in theaters.
As the film prepared for its upcoming SXSW premiere, Liman penned an open letter in Deadline blasting Amazon for refusing to budge from the film’s streaming release:
The facts: I signed up to make a theatrical motion picture for MGM. Amazon bought MGM. Amazon said make a great film and we will see what happens. I made a great film.
We made Road House a “smash hit” – Amazon’s words not mine, btw. Road House tested higher than my biggest box office hit, Mr. and Mrs Smith. It tested higher than Bourne Identity, which spawned four sequels. I’m told the press response has been Amazon’s best since they bought MGM.
According to Liman, Amazon didn’t budge.
“What else could I have delivered to the studio? Nothing, it turns out,” he wrote. “Because contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas. Amazon will exclusively stream Road House on Amazon’s Prime. Amazon asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas, and then they turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures.”
However, a new report from Variety paints a different picture of what happened during the MGM purchase:
Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke quickly salvaged it and was poised to greenlight the film with a cast that also included Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior and Lukas Gage. Sources familiar with the negotiations say the filmmakers and Gyllenhaal were given a choice: Make the film for $60 million and get a theatrical release or take $85 million and go streaming only. They opted for the latter.
“They all took the money,” says one knowledgeable source.
That certainly raises eyebrows about Liman’s boycott, and according to Variety, the team behind Road House is not happy with the director.
“It’s so disrespectful to everyone who worked hard on it,” a source involved with the production said. “It’s a great big fun streaming movie.”
Road House makes its streaming debut March 21 on Prime Video.
(Via Variety)
