Jake Gyllenhaal‘s new movie Road House is scheduled to debut on Amazon’s Prime Video on March 21 and the film is set to have its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, but don’t expect to see director Doug Liman there.
Doug just announced that he is protesting the SXSW premiere in response to Amazon’s decision to skip a theatrical release for the movie, which he says was made for theaters.
For those who don’t know, Doug is the director of movies like The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Edge of Tomorrow, and American Made.
The new take on Road House follows a former UFC fighter (Gyllenhaal) who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.
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“When Road House opens the SXSW film festival, I won’t be attending. 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,” Doug wrote in an op-ed for Deadline. “My plan had been to silently protest Amazon’s decision to stream a movie so clearly made for the big screen. But Amazon is hurting way more than just me and my film. If I don’t speak up about Amazon, who will?”
Doug added, “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.”
You can read the full article on Deadline.com.
Billy Magnussen, who also stars in the movie, posted the article on Instagram and said, “I support Doug Liman and any other artist who dreams big.”