Road House controversy explained as remake hits Prime Video

Patrick Swayze's Road House is a classic of the '80s, and with studios constantly looking for established IP to remake it shouldn't come as a surprise that Amazon has done just that with a new Road House reboot available to view right now — what is a surprise is the controversy around it.

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Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, the 2024 take on Road House reimagines the story for a new generation. It follows the actor's character Elwood Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter who lands a job at a bar in Florida Keys which turns out to be very different to what meets the eye.

All sounds fairly innocuous, right? So why has the film become the subject of much backlash? Let's examine it more closely.

The Road House remake row explained

Straight to streaming release

Road House is set to go straight to streaming, which has created some controversy especially because director Doug Liman boycotted the film's release at SXSW as a result. Liman said he did so as he felt the film should have been released in cinemas rather than go direct to Prime Video.

In an essay for Deadline, Liman said: "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."

He added: "What else could I have delivered to the studio? Nothing, it turns out. 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."

Gyllenhaal refuted these claims, telling Total Film magazine that Amazon "was always clear that it was streaming" though he admired the directors "tenacity" and for "advocating for filmmakers, and film in the cinema, and theatrical releases".

The actor said: "I just want as many people to see it as possible. And I think we’re living in a world that’s changing in how we see and watch movies, and how they’re made. What’s clear to me, and what I loved so much, was [Liman’s] deep love for this movie, and his pride at how much he cares for it, how good he feels it is, and how much people should see it."

Copyright infringement lawsuit

The film's original screenwriter R. Lance Hill, whose pen name is David Lee Henry, is suing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Amazon Studios over copyright infringement. The writer alleges that the companies have ignored the fact that he reclaimed the rights for his 1986 screenplay of the original film.

According to Hill's lawsuit, the writer filed a petition for the copyright of the film to be returned to him when United Artists’ copyright expired in November 2023. This, the lawsuit claims, means he had rights to the remake, but he alleges that Amazon ignored the petition and went ahead with the remake, and that the new film shares "key literary elements" with his script.

The WGA (Writers Guild of America) has since awarded Hill the acknowledgement: "Based on the motion picture Road House, Screenplay by David Lee Henry and Hilary Henkin, Story by David Lee Henry." Hill sought to block the remake film's release.

Hill's lawsuit also claims that Amazon used AI to replicate the voices of actors during the SAG-AFTRA strike so that the film could be finished on time. Amazon have denied these allegations saying that they are "completely without merit".

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson told Variety: "The lawsuit filed by R. Lance Hill regarding Road House today is completely without merit and numerous allegations are categorically false. The film does not use any AI in place of actors’ voices. We look forward to defending ourselves against these claims."

Road House is out now on Prime Video.

Watch the trailer for Road House: