Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Doug Liman’s remake/reimagining/resomething of Road House – but it won’t be seeing a cinema screen.
Not everyone’s been keen on the news that there’s a remake of the much-loved 1980s hit Road House on the way. After all, the original – directed by the sublimely-named Rowdy Herrington – gave the late and much-missed Patrick Swayze one of his most famous roles.
The new Road House gives that part to a bulked-up Jake Gyllenhaal, and he’s going to be going toe-to-toe with an antagonist played by Connor McGregor. It’s former UFC fighter McGregor’s acting debut, and also in the ensemble are Daniela Melchior and Billy Magnussen.
The plot remains familiar: a man called Dalton is hired to work at a Road House (see what they did there?) which is being targeted by not very nice people. Those not very nice people are not very good when asked very nicely to leave, hence seven shades needs to be promptly beaten out of them.
Doug Liman has directed the movie, calling its final shots earlier this year. And there had already been rumours – apparently to the displeasure of Liman and Gyllenhaal – that Amazon was planning to skip cinemas for the movie and drop it directly on its Prime Video service.
Producer Joel Silver was reported by Variety has being ‘incensed’ by the suggestion, and he’s no longer working with Amazon. You can read more on that here.
Those rumours have proven to be correct as well. It’s now been announced that Amazon will be debuting the film on March 21st 2024. It’s going straight to Prime Video, with no plans for a theatrical release for the film.
An early report suggests that test scores for the film have been strong, so it may simply be a case as Amazon not reckoning there’s much theatrical market for the movie. We’ll know in due course just how the new Road House plays out.
Read more: Road House | Amazon denies report that it used AI to finish remake
