Road House reboot director Doug Liman is once again taking a shot at Amazon, claiming he and star Jake Gyllenhaal haven’t been properly compensated.
Liman, 59, penned an scathing open letter back in January, claiming he was boycotting the film’s world premiere at SXSW, though he ultimately attended.
He came aboard the project before Amazon bought MGM, stating he had intended to make a film that would be released in theaters.
However another report claimed that Liman, Gyllenhaal and producer Joel Silver were given a clear choice: take a $60 million budget and get a theatrical release or take a $85 million budget and get a streaming-only release.
Liman and the producers chose the latter, but now, after more than 50 million people watched the remake in the first two weeks, the director said in a new interview with IndieWire that neither he nor Gyllenhaal, ‘didn’t get a cent’ of the streaming revenue, in a new interview with IndieWire.
Road House reboot director Doug Liman is once again taking a shot at Amazon, claiming he and star Jake Gyllenhaal haven’t been properly compensated
However another report claimed that Liman, Gyllenhaal and producer Joel Silver were given a clear choice: take a $60 million budget and get a theatrical release or take a $85 million budget and get a streaming-only release
‘My issue on Road House is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theaters, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, and then Amazon switched it on us and nobody got compensated,’ Liman said.
‘Forget about the effect on the industry — 50 million people saw Road House — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, (producer) Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong,’ he added.
The filmmaker also insisted, ‘I have no issue with streaming. We need streaming movies cause, we need writers to go to work and directors to go to work and actors to go to work and not every movie should be in a movie theater.’
‘So I’m a big advocate of TV series, of streaming movies, of theatrical movies, we should have it all,’ he added.
Since Liman, Gyllenhaal and Silver likely negotiated their deals with MGM before Amazon bought them, which may have included back end compensation based on theatrical revenue.
When Amazon took over, and the filmmakers and producers took the streaming-only deal for a higher production budget, those back end compensation figures, if they did indeed exist in their deals, seemingly didn’t transfer into any back end for streaming revenue, which is seemingly Liman’s big issue.
Liman was promoting his new film The Instigators, which will have a limited theatrical release on August 2 before debuting on Apple TV Plus on August 9.
He revealed that his experience with Apple was much different and they were more up front as far as compensation goes.
‘My issue on Road House is that we made the movie for MGM to be in theaters, everyone was paid as if it was going to be in theaters, and then Amazon switched it on us and nobody got compensated,’ Liman said
‘Forget about the effect on the industry — 50 million people saw Road House — I didn’t get a cent, Jake Gyllenhaal didn’t get a cent, (producer) Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong,’ he added
Liman was promoting his new film The Instigators, which will have a limited theatrical release on August 2 before debuting on Apple TV Plus on August 9
‘In the case of Apple, right from the beginning, we said we’re making this for streaming, our contracts compensated streaming, we’re all compensated for it being on streaming — there’s something called a streaming buyout — so Apple has been above-board from the beginning,’ Liman revealed.
He also praised The Instigators producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck through their company Artists Equity.
‘They come from a place that I come from where they want to make movies that are not empty calories. Cause you can make big, fun action movies that you’ll forget five minutes later and then you can make big, fun action movies that stick with you and you want to watch again or you think about it and you figure something out,” he said.
‘Matt and Ben with Artists Equity are committed in the same way. They want to make big, fun, commercial movies, but they want to make movies that resonate with an audience and that stick with you,’ he said.
