The ‘Road House’ Reboot Battle: A Contested Streaming Deal, Ari Emanuel’s ‘Desperate’ Pleas and a Director Going Scorched-Earth

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1. Sources say Amazon has fired the polarizing Hollywood figure from at least two films — one starring Mark Wahlberg, the other Jake Gyllenhaal — for being verbally abusive to two female executives.

   But sources close to Silver say Amazon is retaliating against the producer after he pushed back on the studio’s calls to use artificial intelligence to finish a movie during the strike.

   Amid the chaos, Silver’s longtime friend Robert Downey Jr. has quietly exited one of the projects.

2. Bro is jake Gylenhaal gonna kick the shit out of some hillbillies for my entertainment or not

3. While I’m not sure the article is accurate, it makes sense regarding the sudden outcry about it being streaming only.

   It makes Liman and producers look like they acted in bad faith though.

   I have to watch it because Liman said it may be the best movie he’s ever made. That’s a bold statement for something with such a mediocre trailer.

4. I find the “insider’s comment” about Ari pretty funny. Why did Ari care?

   Recently, in the 11th hour of distribution, “Air,” , an Amazon movie full of WME stars, was switched from a straight to streaming to a theatrical release.

   Ari reps Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Wahlberg. Hyperlinked in variety’s own article, there is another variety article that mentions Joel Silver’s Roadhouse theatrical feud led to two future Amazon movies with those stars being killed.

   Moreover, WME represents Jake Gyllenhaal, and getting the movie into theaters is an opportunity to flip Doug Liman from CAA to WME.

   Guess who Liman is working with in his next film? WME stars Matt Damon and the Affleck brothers.

   Common fxckin sense why he cared and I’m no insider.

   Poor collective journalism by Variety not to include this information. It leads me to believe this is a pro-Amazon piece.

5. I could have sworn there already was a Road House remake! But a search turns up nothing but this film, so I guess it’s been delayed so long I assumed it came out years ago.

6. If this part is true:

   Sources familiar with the negotiations say the filmmakers and Gyllenhaal were given a choice: Make the film for $60 million and get a theatrical release or take $85 million and go streaming only. They opted for the latter.

   Then the director and producers don’t have a leg to stand on. They tried to talk Amazon into a theatrical release, unlikely after paying an additional $25M to not do that, and now acting butthurt because they tried to have their cake and eat it too. Theatrical matters because likely they had points on the profits if had gone theatrical.

   As for Pellicano, if rumors true, anyone that employs him is not above board. In another life he would happily be a mafia mob boss and has about the morals of one.