Hollywood Showdown: Doug Liman and Amazon MGM are making competing sequels to ROAD HOUSE

It looks like there’s a fight brewing between Amazon MGM and the director Doug Liman during their duel Street house movie sequels.

Liman, who relaunched the franchise with a successful streaming remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregorquietly acquired the sequel rights to the original Street house written by the writer R. Lance Hill.

The director intends to make it happen Roadhouse: Dylanthe scribe’s sequel to the iconic 1989 film he starred in lately Patrick Swayze as the badass Zen who comes to a corrupt city and cleans it up, one bar fight at a time.

Amazon MGM Studios has begun production House on street 2a completely different sequel, following on from Liman’s reboot. Ilya Naishuler takes over the director’s chair after Liman washes his hands of it. Gyllenhaal reprises his role as a cage fighter turned bartender Dave Battista, Aldis Hodge AND Leila Giorgio.

Like last year’s first film, the plan is to release the sequel on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming site. The Liman-directed original became the biggest film debut ever with a record 50 million viewers worldwide in its first two weekends on Prime Video.

That made it the most-watched debut film ever globally, according to the streamer, though precise streaming numbers aren’t as easily tracked as box office repeats for theatrical films.

But the problem was that since Liman’s original deal included raises for box office success, his compensation suffered because the crowd-pleasing film would certainly have a strong chance of attracting audiences to theaters.

After the film deal fell through, Liman wrote a column for Deadline, laying bare his frustration at making a deal that called for a full theatrical release, and then being unceremoniously informed that Street house it would be a directly streaming title. This was after the film had tested well enough to become a sleeper movie hit, which was the deal Liman made.

How can there be duel sequels of the same film? There is an ongoing federal lawsuit over ownership of the franchise, filed by attorney Marc Toberoff for Hill. The problem is this: They argue that Hill wrote the 1986 original as a spec screenplay, and that, pursuant to Section 203 of the U.S. Copyright Act, Hill legally regained the rights to his screenplay on November 11, 2023, 35 years after selling it to United Artists. Section 203 allows authors to claim copyright in original works after that period, unless the work was created as a “work made for hire.”

Hill argues Street house it was not a commissioned work: he wrote it independently, was paid only after selling it at auction and had no studio supervision. He claims Amazon’s 2024 remake infringed on his reacquired rights. Amazon and MGM counter that his termination notice is invalid because the screenplay was sold through his lending company, Lady Amos Inc., and therefore qualifies as a work-for-hire.

Their counterclaim for false ownership – which accused Hill of misrepresenting authorship in copyright filings – survived an anti-SLAPP strike motion in September 2024; Hill appealed that ruling to the Ninth Circuit.

Liman, who sought out Hill when he intended to Hous RoadThe sequel to Amazon MGM, met the writer and sympathized with his situation. Liman’s move effectively recognizes Hill’s claims and creates two competing title chains: the Amazon studio sequel and Liman’s author-approved project.

It sounds like these will be very different films and stories, and fans of the franchise will likely enjoy both films. Stay tuned for project updates.

via: Deadline