Amid Controversy, Road House Remake Tapped to Open SXSW Film

Jake Gyllenhaal in Road House, which was adapted from the Eighties cult classic starring Patrick Swayze (credit: Amazon MGM Studios)

Better mind your manners at South by Southwest: The film festival has just announced that the remake of Road House, with Jake Gyllenhaal as the world’s scariest bouncer, will be kicking things off as the opening night film. To celebrate the news, Prime has just dropped the first trailer.

The fest confirmed the news this morning after it leaked yesterday in a very unconventional manner: Director Doug Liman wrote a column for Deadline announcing that he would be boycotting the screening – which had not even been announced at that point – due to the decision by Amazon MGM to not distribute the film in theatres but instead send it straight to streaming service Prime.

That doesn’t stop Road House from being one of the most eagerly awaited films of the year, with Gyllenhaal taking on the part of Elwood Dalton, made famous by Patrick Swayze in the 1989 rough-and-tumble classic. In this version, the action moves from Jasper, Missouri to the Florida Keys, where former UFC fighter Dalton gets a job at a bar as a bouncer. Of course, he ends up dealing with a lot more than a few drunken vacationers, as the cast includes MMA legend Conor McGregor, the first fighter to hold UFC titles in two weight classes simultaneously. The movies also stars Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, Lukas Gage, Arturo Castro, B.K. Cannon, Beau Knapp, Darren Barnet, Dominique Columbus, Bob Menergy, Catfish Jean, Kevin Carroll, Travis Van Winkle, and Hannah Lanier.

Adding Road House to the schedule means SXSW is doubling down on big-budget remakes of Eighties action faves, as the festival already announced that this year's centerpiece movie will be the remake of The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, the hard-hitting and hard-hit stunt man played by Lee Majors in the original TV show.

This is actually Gyllenhaal's second SXSW opening night selection, his first being back in 2010 with time loop mindbender Source Code, and he was back again at the fest again in 2016 with Demolition.

“Road House is a crowd-pleasing, vengeance-seeking, boat-jumping bar brawl and we are thrilled to kick (and punch) off the SXSW Film & TV Festival with this wildly entertaining premiere,” said Claudette Godfrey, VP Film & TV. “It’s been said that Jake Gyllenhaal gives a career-best performance and we completely agree! We can’t wait for our audiences to turn opening night into a one-of-a-kind experience.”

“We are incredibly proud to share Road House with the fun and discerning opening night crowd at SXSW,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios. “The film is an adrenaline-fueled, action-packed reimagining of the ‘80s cult classic, made modern by the talented cast led by the incomparable Jake Gyllenhaal. From the moment we read this fantastic script, we were confident this inspired film would resonate with our global audience.”

SXSW 2024 runs March 8-16. More details and info at sxsw.com. And don't forget to follow all our coverage, and dig into the archives, at austinchronicle.com/sxsw.

Now here's that trailer ...