Earlier this year, Doug Liman’s relationship with streaming wasn’t looking too bright. The director behind hit films like “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Edge of Tomorrow,” Liman was brought aboard MGM’s remake of the Patrick Swayze-starring cult action movie, “Road House,” in 2021, according to an announcement in Variety, with production commencing in 2022.
This new vision of “Road House” would be headlined by Jake Gyllenhaal and double-down on the intensity of the fighting seen in the original, with Liman crafting it as an event piece for theaters. However, in the midst of development on the film, MGM was acquired by Amazon, who reportedly gave Liman and the rest of the team a choice: a $60 million budget for theatrical or an $85 million budget if it went straight to streaming.
Reports say the production happily took the extra money, but public comments made by Liman in Deadline painted a different picture. He threatened to boycott the premiere at SXSW over Amazon’s actions, but ultimately folded, attending alongside Gyllenhaal. Even now, months after the film’s release, Liman is still voicing his complaints, though he’s clear to separate Amazon from the rest of the streaming landscape.
“First of all, 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,” Liman said in a recent interview with IndieWire while promoting his new film “The Instigators.” “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, [producer] Joel Silver didn’t get a cent. That’s wrong.”
Even if Amazon’s theatrical vs. streaming offer was, as reported, put forward to Liman and the rest of the team prior to production being greenlit, his current issue seems to be rooted in how the creatives behind “Road House” were not properly compensated on the backend. Separate from factors of budget, depending on when Liman, Gyllenhaal, and Silver negotiated their contracts — before or after Amazon’s acquisition of MGM — profits they could have received from theatrical box office may not have been translated into a backend profit based on streaming views.
Amazon declined to comment for this story.
On his latest film, “The Instigators,” which was made with the intention of streaming on Apple TV+ after a week long theatrical run, Liman says the experience couldn’t have been better.
“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,” said Liman.
Despite Liman’s advocacy for fair dealmaking in Hollywood, at the end of the day, the contracts and business remain separate from what’s actually put on the screen. As for the difference between streaming and theatrical, Liman told IndieWire that his job is to make sure whatever he puts out into the world stands the test of time.
“‘Bourne Identity’ opened on a big screen, but people who are seeing it today are seeing it at home,” he said. “So I want my movies to have strong enough characters and relationships and action performances that they hold up no matter what size screen you see them on. I’ve always embraced in my own films that it’s gotta exist in both worlds.”
Another factor that made “The Instigators” a smoother ride for Liman than “Road House” was having the support of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck through their company Artists Equity. For the first time in a long time, Liman felt like he didn’t have some “angry studio head” lurking over his shoulder and that he could allow his “rebellious” nature feed into the filmmaking rather than any backstage drama. It helped too that Damon and Affleck share similar objectives to Liman.
“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. He later added, “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.”
“The Instigators” opens in theaters August 2 and will stream on Apple TV+ August 9.
