Directed by Rowdy Harrington, “The Bouncer” was one of the biggest hits of the VHS era. He played the main role in it Patrick Swayze. The film tells the story of Dalton, the titular specialist in maintaining order in bars. A man accepts a job offer at the Double Deuce, a place known for bloody fights every evening. It soon turns out that the town where the bar is located is ruled by a local gangster (Ben Gazzara). Dalton will have to face him and his men.
The new version of “Bouncers” is titled “Road House”. The script was written by Anthony Bagarozzi (“Nice Guys”) and Charles Mondry, and the camera was directed by Doug Liman, whose “The Bourne Identity” revolutionized modern action cinema. As with the original film, Joel Silver (“Predator”, “Die Hard”) was behind the production of the reboot.
The premiere of “Road House” is scheduled for the opening of the famous SXSW festival in Austin, which starts on March 8. It is certain that Doug Liman will not appear at the event. This is supposed to be a form of protest. The director revealed this in a column he wrote for Deadline.
Against what? Well, it turns out that Liman was sure that his film would hit theaters first and only later on the Prime Video platform. Meanwhile, the owner of the latter, Amazon, plans to immediately introduce the film to streaming.
The director does not agree with this decision and assures that he was deceived. He adds that “Road House” may be his best film, and Gyllenhaal plays the role of a lifetime. And although he was originally supposed to not create negative buzz around the film, he changed his mind. He assures that he is doing it not only on his own behalf, but also on behalf of other defrauded filmmakers.
The whole thing was described differently in Variety. According to the portal, the creators of “Road House” received two options from Amazon: either a $60 million budget and a cinema premiere, or $85 million, but the film goes straight to Prime. Manufacturers were supposed to choose more money and then wanted to force Amazon to make concessions.
The star of the film, Jake Gylenhaal, was asked many times about the whole matter. In a recent interview with “Total Film” he finally decided to address it.
“I love Doug’s persistence and consider him an advocate for filmmakers and the presence of films in theaters. But Amazon has always made it clear that this film will be available for streaming,” the artist said.
“Road House” is scheduled to debut on the Prime platform on March 21.