Jake Gyllenhaal has broken his silence when it comes to the controversy surrounding his new movie, “Road House.”
The film, an update of Patrick Swayze’s immortal 1989 classic, will premiere on Prime Video at the end of March. However, the remake’s director Doug Liman is unhappy with Amazon’s decision, stating that he won’t attend the film’s upcoming premiere at South by Southwest.
A month after Liman’s initial comments, Gyllenhaal told Total Film, “I adore Doug’s tenacity and I think he is advocating for filmmakers and film in the cinema and theatrical releases. But, I mean, Amazon was always clear that it was streaming. 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.”
He continued, “I’ve also sat watching a film on my computer, or in different places, and been so profoundly moved. If the job of a story is to move people, I have been moved in both forms. I’m a deep lover of cinema and the theatrical release — but I also do really embrace the streaming world.”
And Gyllenhaal would know. He’s starred in several streaming releases over the past few years, including Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja,” Dan Gilroy’s deeply insane “Velvet Buzzsaw” and Antoine Fuqua’s “The Guilty” (all for Netflix). Meanwhile, Liman made COVID-set thriller “Locked Down” in the nascent days of HBO Max.
Last month, the director accused Amazon of betrayal, writing, “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.”
In the new “Road House,” Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC champ who ends up working as a “cooler” at a dive bar in the Florida Keys. The cast also includes Daniela Melchior, Jessica Williams, Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage, actual UFC fighter Conor McGregor and Joaquim de Almeida.
“Road House” premieres at SXSW on March 8 before hitting Prime Video on March 21.
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