Jake Gyllenhaal ‘didn’t get compensated’ for his work on Road House despite the movie’s record-breaking success on Amazon, it has been claimed.
The Brokeback Mountain actor, 43, appeared as Elwood Dalton in the flick, which was released on March 21 and served as a remake of the 1989 classic starring Patrick Swayze.
He led the star-studded cast alongside Conor McGregor, Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage and Darren Barnet, and will be reprising his role for an upcoming sequel.
Although it was a huge smash, with almost millions of viewers tuning in worldwide to watch the action, director Doug Liman has suggested that those behind the scenes ‘didn’t get a cent’ for their success.
In a candid new interview, he alleged that they initially made the movie to come out in cinemas, before Amazon bosses ‘switched it on us’.
‘First of all, I have no issue with streaming,’ he told IndieWire. ‘We need streaming movies because, 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.
‘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.
‘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, Joel Silver [producer] didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong.’
Doug, who was behind Mr and Mrs Smith, was reportedly brought on board Road House by MGM in 2021, but then things appeared to change when the studio was acquired by Amazon.
Those behind the scenes were allegedly given the choice of working with a $60million budget for a cinema release, or $85million if it went straight to streaming.
The filmmaker publicly vowed to boycott the SXSW premiere in an open letter for Deadline, but ended up attending beside the cast.
Amazon bosses have not yet addressed Doug’s latest comments publicly, but his remarks come more than a month after they announced that a Road House sequel is officially on the way.
No further details have been released on the plot or cast, and it is not clear whether the director will be returning to the fold.
In May, a spokesperson also confirmed that Road House had attracted ‘nearly 80million worldwide viewers’ at the time, with a ‘record-breaking’ 50million people tuning in in the first two weekends after release.
Jake truly went above and beyond for the role, and entered into a tough regimen to get himself in top shape – however this ended up taking a toll on him physically.
‘I mean inevitably with these types of movies you do get [injuries]. I took a couple like punches for real,’ he revealed in a chat with Metro.co.uk.
‘We’re not fighting in a ring, you’re not fighting in an octagon or a boxing ring, so you have elements – like you’re in a bar, you have edges of things, you have glass, you have other people all around, there are chairs, things break…
‘I got glass in my hand; I got a staph infection from grappling at some point.
‘I, really gratefully, worked very hard to try and keep my body in place where it was functional, mobile, and flexible, so I didn’t sustain any long-term injuries – but a lot of bruises.
‘We all at one time or another misjudged distance and got hit or hits by mistake.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Amazon reps for a comment.
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