Road House star Jake Gyllenhaal and his production banner Nine Stories have signed a deal with the backers of two of his recent films, Amazon MGM.
It looks as though Amazon MGM is on something of a charm offensive at the moment. Warner Bros has also signed a slew of first-look deals in a bid to negotiate partnerships with plenty of acclaimed Hollywood creatives as the studio looks to reassert its ‘filmmaker-friendly’ reputation after several years of setting fire to that eminent renown, seemingly as often and as violently as it possibly could.
Over at Amazon however, the executives in charge seem to have realised that since embracing a theatrical release model through its MGM label, the studio is in something of a strong position when it comes to acquiring top-tier talent. After all, it can offer the prestige of a full theatrical release (with the iconic MGM roaring lion at the front-end of its movies) while also guaranteeing creatives a splashy spot on its Prime Video streaming service, the only streaming platform that can rival Netflix for subscriber numbers.
That’s a potent (and unique) combination that could yet attract more talent to the studio, as long as it veers away from the kind of Warner Bros levels of controversy that makes filmmakers and stars wary to associate themselves with it. Road House director Doug Liman tried his best to stir up one such brouhaha over the release strategy for his film, but ultimately, the studio managed to navigate through that one without suffering too much of a hit.
Speaking of Road House, that film’s star has now signed up for a first-look deal with Amazon MGM according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories production banner has inked a three year, first-look deal with the studio. According to Amazon, Road House is ‘the most watched film debut for a studio-produced title, [attracting] 50 million viewers to date’.
Following that success, Amazon has elected to forge a deal with Gyllenhaal.
Gyllenhall joins Ryan Gosling as another key star who’s nailed his colours to Amazon’s mast. The Barbie star recently formed his own production company and also signed a first-look deal with the company. Whether any more names follow the duo remains to be seen, but as statements of intent go, it’s been a pretty strong fortnight for Amazon, having seen off the ‘spirited’ public challenge of Doug Liman before signing up two big names to the studio. It also has some intriguing films slated for release this year including Challengers, My Old Ass and Blink Twice, all of which are dated for 2024.
Will the studio become an increasingly-favoured destination for filmmakers and stars? Time will tell, but as Netflix seemingly looks to move its film output in a very different direction, it promises to be an interesting couple of years for streamers and their film divisions.
