Road House director Doug Liman to boycott premiere over streaming release

To quote the great, throat-ripping NYU-educated philosopher, Dalton, “Nobody ever wins a fight.” But maybe Doug Liman can get a few shots in.

Liman, the director of the upcoming remake of Road House starring Jake Gyllenhaal, will be boycotting the film’s SXSW premiere over issues with Amazon MGM’s release strategy. In an op-ed for Deadline, the prolific filmmaker criticizes Amazon for pushing Road House to streaming and accuses the company of setting a dangerous precedent for theatrical releases and failing to live up to agreements.

“Contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas,” Liman writes. “Amazon will exclusively stream Road House on Amazon 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.”

Liman says he “signed up to make a theatrical motion picture for MGM,” and when Amazon bought MGM, Bezos’ behemoth promised to put “a billion dollars into theatrical motion pictures, releasing at least 12 a year.” It was touted as “the largest commitment to cinemas by an internet company,” he says, and Liman was told if he made a great film, a theatrical release wasn’t out of the question. After testing higher than his previous hits and despite the film’s “strong tie-in with UFC, which has a rabid and loyal fan base,” the company decided to dump the film on streaming.

The director sees this as an existential threat to movie theaters but doesn’t blame the Amazon film execs, who he believes to be “good people who are trying to do their best.” That might not be the problem:

The reality is there may not be a human villain in this story – it may simply be an Amazon computer algorithm. Amazon will sell more toasters if it has more subscribers; it will have more subscribers if it doesn’t have to compete with movie theaters. A computer could come up with that elegant solution as easily as it could solve global warming by killing all humans.

But a computer doesn’t know what it is like to share the experience of laughing and cheering and crying with a packed audience in a dark theater – and if Amazon has its way, future audiences won’t know either.

This isn’t the first post-production hiccup for Road House. Last year, producer Joel Silver was reportedly removed from the film and another Amazon release for allegedly verbally abusing two female executives. Silver’s representatives dispute that he was fired or asked to leave but that his job was done. Variety reports that Silver was—get this—“incensed over the release strategy of Road House.” Silver, they write, wanted the film to go to theaters. The trade’s sources say those close to Silver say Amazon wanted to use A.I. to finish the movie, which he objected to.

Previously, it was reported that the film’s producers requested Amazon film head Jennifer Salke show the film to CEO Jeff Bezos on his yacht, which sounds like one of the Ben Gazara scenes from the original Road House. Bezos reportedly opted to push the film to streaming.

The A.V. Club has reached out to Amazon for comment.