Road House: Director Doug Liman Skipping Movie's Premiere in Protest
Doug Liman wrote about the importance of releasing movies in theaters.
A new poster for the Road House reboot was released today, and the trailer is expected to be coming soon. The new film is a "reimagining" of Road House for Prime Video, and it is set to star Jake Gyllenhaal as a former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a road house in the Florida Keys. The film is being helmed by Doug Liman, who is best known for directing The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow. The remake is set to premiere at SXSW, but Liman announced he plans to boycott the event. The director wrote a guest column for Deadline, explaining why he is protesting Amazon's choice to release the movie solely on streaming.
"When Road House opens the SXSW film festival, I won't be attending," Liman began. "The movie is fantastic, maybe my best ... But I will not be there. My plan had been to silently protest Amazon's decision to stream a movie so clearly made for the big screen. But Amazon is hurting way more than just me and my film..."
"When Amazon bought MGM ... they announced that they would put a billion dollars into theatrical motion pictures, releasing at least 12 a year. They touted it as 'the largest commitment to cinemas by an internet company.' I can tell you what they then did to me and my film Road House, which is the opposite of what they promised when they took over MGM," he continued. "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 ... I'm told the press response has been Amazon's best since they bought MGM ... Jake Gyllenhaal gives a career-defining performance in a role he was born to play. Audiences will want to see UFC mega-star Conor McGregor take his debut swing at Jake on the big screen..."
"What else could I have delivered to the studio? Nothing, it turns out, Liman continued. "Because contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas ... 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. That hurts the filmmakers and stars of Road House who don't share in the upside of a hit movie on a streaming platform ... But the impact goes far beyond this one movie..."
"If we don't put tentpole movies in movie theaters, there won't be movie theaters in the future ... Without movie theaters, we won't have the commercial box office hits that are the locomotives that allow studios to take gambles on original movies and new directors. Without movie theaters we won't have movie stars."
"I'm not opposed to streaming movies ... But I am opposed to Amazon gutting MGM and its theatrical business, as I would have been had Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and then gutted its newsroom (he did the opposite)."
"The reality is there may not be a human villain in this story – it may simply be an Amazon computer algorithm. Amazon will sell more toasters if it has more subscribers; it will have more subscribers if it doesn't have to compete with movie theaters ... But a computer doesn't know what it is like to share the experience of laughing and cheering and crying with a packed audience in a dark theater – and if Amazon has its way, future audiences won't know either."
What do you think about Doug Limen's guest column? Tell us in the comments.
Road House (2024) is scheduled to be released on March 21st.
