What a way to start your marketing campaign. The poster for Amazon Studios/Prime Video’s “Road House” movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal was released today, the trailer arrives tomorrow, and the always-mercurial director of the film, Doug Liman, has unfortunately picked the worst time to announce he’s boycotting the movie.
Rumors swirled earlier this year that Liman was not happy with the treatment of the film and the fact that Prime Video would be releasing it on their streaming service only and would not be giving it a theatrical release. That’s now more or less confirmed in a report by Deadline, which says Liman is now going to boycott the film at its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in March, mainly because Prime isn’t giving it a proper theatrical window.
Liman has written a first-person article on Deadline explaining his actions, and whoo, boy, he is going all in, including spoiling the fact that “Road House” was only announced as a SXSW opener this afternoon.
“When ‘Road House’ opens the SXSW film festival, I won’t be attending,” Liman writes. “The movie is fantastic, maybe my best, and I’m sure it will bring the house down and possibly have the audience dancing in their seats during the end credits. 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,” he continued. “But Amazon is hurting way more than just me and my film. If I don’t speak up about Amazon, who will? So here we go.”
Liman reminds us that Amazon announced a few years back that they would be spending billions of dollars on theatrical motion pictures, releasing at least 12 films a year.
Liman says Amazon called “Road House” a “smash hit,” and he claims it tested higher than “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “The Bourne Identity,” but still has no plans to release the film theatrically.
“The facts: I signed up to make a theatrical motion picture for MGM. Amazon bought MGM. Amazon said to make a great film, and we will see what happens. I made a great film,” he says while touting the film’s connections to the ever-popular UFC sport that’s part of the narrative.
“Because contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas. Amazon will exclusively stream ‘Road House’ on Amazon Prime.”
“Road House” stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor, and Billy Magnussen. The film is planned for a theatrical premiere at SXSW in mid-March in Austin, Texan, and then is scheduled to be released by Amazon MGM Studios via Prime Video on March 21, 2024. Those who are working hard on tomorrow’s trailer premiere are likely dismayed, to say the least.