Amazon Studios and original Road House scribe R. Lance Hill are coming to blows after the latter sued the studio for copyright infringement, also making claims of misuse of AI, with regards to its upcoming remake.
On Tuesday, Hill, who also goes by the name David Lee Henry, sued Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its parent company, Amazon Studios, claiming copyright infringement and seeking declaratory relief, according to a complaint obtained by EW.
Hill wrote the original 1989 film, which starred Patrick Swayze as Dalton, a bouncer with a Ph.D. in philosophy and a karate black belt who is hired to clean up a bad bar in a small Missouri town. The Doug Liman-directed remake stars Jake Gyllenhaal. According to the complaint, which seeks a trial by jury, Hill alerted the original film’s producers, United Artists, in 2021 that the copyright grant was ending and the rights would go back to him starting on Nov. 11, 2023.
Instead, the complaint claims, MGM, Amazon and United “steamrolled ahead with the production of a remake of the 1989 film, derived from Hill’s Screenplay.” “Defendants’ unauthorized 2024 Remake was not completed until late January 9, 2024, well after the effective date of Hill’s statutory termination. This case arises from Defendants’ blatant copyright infringement due to their willful failure to license the requisite motion picture and ancillary rights to Hill’s Screenplay underlying their derivative 2004 Remake as required by law,” it states.
Hill’s complaint also alleges misuse of AI by the studio. “Hill is further informed and believes and based thereon alleges that Defendants went so far as to take extreme measures to try to meet this November 10, 2023 deadline, at considerable additional cost, including by resorting to the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) during the 2023 strike of the Screen Actor’s Guild (“SAG”) to replicate the voices of the 2024 Remake’s actors for purposes of ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement), all in knowing violation of the collective bargaining agreements of both SAG and the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) to which Defendants were signatories,” the complaint claims. “These are not the actions of companies that truly believe that Hill’s Termination is ineffective.”
An Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson told EW, “The lawsuit filed by R. Lance Hill regarding Road House today is completely without merit and numerous allegations are categorically false. The film does not use any AI in place of actors’ voices. We look forward to defending ourselves against these claims.” A source close to the situation stressed that no AI was utilized in the film to recreate actors’ voices, and if any AI was used during production, it would have been by the filmmakers during early cuts. The source claims filmmakers were advised by the studio to remove any AI or nonunion performers from the final cut of the film.
Everett Collection
Hill’s suit seeks to block distribution of the thriller. Road House is currently slated to head to Amazon Prime Video on March 21. Previously it was revealed that Liman took issue with Amazon releasing the film on streaming as opposed to giving it a theatrical release, and would therefore not be attending the film’s SXSW premiere out of protest.
To that end, Hill said in a statement to EW, “Road House has become a worldwide cult phenomenon since I wrote it as a spec script in 1986. But recently, when I recovered my copyright, MGM/Amazon tried to hand-waive me away. I’m elated that Doug Liman’s Road House remake is considered to be his and Jake Gyllenhaal’s best work to date. Yet MGM/Amazon seems intent on burying Road House (2024) in a streaming slot rather than releasing it on the big screen where great movies and movie stars belong. They might as well erect a sign out front advising TALENT BEWARE, NOT WELCOME HERE.”
Hill’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, added, “The asset base of all major entertainment studios is content, without it they have nothing. It is time they respect the fundamental rights and artistry of creators on whose sweat and toil their empires are based.”
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