In a move that has surprised no one, Prime Video has greenlit a Road House sequel, with actor Jake Gyllenhaal set to reprise his role as the UFC fighter turned barroom bouncer, Dalton. The 2024 reboot of the classic Patrick Swayze film debuted on the streaming service back in March, with Amazon MGM Studios claiming it drew a whopping 50 million viewers in its first two weekends. More impressive still, Road House has now amassed “nearly 80 million worldwide viewers to-date, making it Amazon’s most-watched produced film debut ever on a worldwide basis”.
“As we saw this spring the world went crazy for a little movie called Road House,” Amazon MGM Studio chief Jennifer Salke said on stage during Amazon’s first-ever upfront presentation to advertisers. “Nearly 8 million viewers globally have watched Road House. We like to watch these results like a baby.”
Unsurprisingly, plot details for the upcoming and currently untitled Road House sequel remain a mystery, and it’s also unclear who, besides Jake Gyllenhaal, will return from the original cast. No official release date has been announced either, but Amazon Studios has confirmed that work on the project is ongoing, so it might be a while before any new details are announced.
Directed by Doug Liman, Prime Video’s Road House is a modern reimagining of the 1989 Patrick Swayze movie. The film follows Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dalton, an “ex-UFC fighter trying to escape his dark past and his penchant for violence,” per the synopsis.
“Dalton is barely scraping by on the reputation that still precedes him when he is spotted by Frankie (Williams), owner of a roadhouse in the Florida Keys. She hires him to be her new bouncer in hopes of stopping a violent gang, working for crime boss Brandt (Magnussen), from destroying her beloved bar. Even five to one, Brandt’s crew is no match for Dalton’s skills. But the stakes get higher with the arrival of ruthless gun-for-hire, Knox (McGregor).”
While the sequel announcement isn’t entirely unexpected, it does throw a bit of a spanner in the works for Amazon MGM Studios’ plans. Famously, director Doug Liman took offence to the organisation’s decision to pull the reboot from theatres and premiere it solely on streaming. In a video posted by YouTuber Casey Neiswat, the man behind action blockbusters The Bourne Identity and The Edge of Tomorrow lamented the move, suggesting Amazon was giving him ‘the shaft’.
“We made Road House for the big screen. Shot it with IMAX cameras. Big stars in it. It’s a party, there’s great music and great bar fights. I mean, there’s more to it, but at the heart of it, it’s a party,” Liman said in the clip.
“Amazon never had any intention of putting it in theatres. They wanted to put it on their streaming service and sell toilet paper and toothbrushes. I’m not the only filmmaker that Amazon is doing this to. There’s a string of filmmakers who were promised a theatrical release and then their films were dumped on streaming. They’re definitely giving me the shaft. They’re giving the public the shaft.”
Besides Gyllenhaal, the recent film also stars Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, Austin Post, Conor McGregor, Lukas Gage, Arturo Castro, B.K. Cannon, Beau Knapp, Darren Barnet, Dominique Columbus, Bob Menery, Catfish Jean, Kevin Carroll, Travis Van Winkle and Hannah Lanier. The upcoming Road House sequel currently has no official release date.
