Road House screenwriter sues makers over Jake Gyllenhaal remake without due credit

The upcoming Jake Gyllenhaal film has found itself in trouble as R Lance Hill, the screenwriter of the original 1989 film Road House has filed a copyright lawsuit. The suit is against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its parent company, Amazon Studios. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House is slated for release on March 21 on Prime Video.

R Lance Hill claims that Amazon has ignored his ability to reclaim the rights for his 1986 screenplay as they have made a remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Road House screenwriter wants his copyright back

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The screenwriter wants the courts to intervene and return him the copyright. He alleges that he had even filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in 2021, requesting that the copyright return to him after United Artists’ claim was set to expire in November 2023. The suit goes on to allege that Amazon ignored his claims and proceeded with the film.

The Prime Video film has used AI to replicate the voices of actors for ADR during the SAG strike in an effort to complete the film before the November 10 deadline.

This is not the first time when an AI accusation has come to fore with respect to Road House. Earlier, when producer Joel Silver was fired from Amazon in November 2023 over verbal abuse, Variety reported that the producer was being penalised for raising concerns over the streamer’s use of AI to complete Road House. None of these claims have been proved. The streamer has denied these allegations.

Lance Hill claims the film was actually not completed until January, months after the copyright deadline had passed. It also raises issue with “key literary elements substantially similar” to Hill’s original script, including a detailed exhibit demonstrating a side-by-side of original plot points and those of Amazon’s retelling.

The lawsuit reads, “On Nov. 11, 2023, the Screenplay’s copyright thereby duly reverted to Hill under the Copyright Act. Yet, in contravention of the Act’s fundamental authorial termination right, Defendants refused to acknowledge Hill’s statutory termination. Instead, Defendants steamrolled ahead with the production of a remake of the 1989 film derived from Hill’s Screenplay.”

AI or no AI?

In a Variety report, an Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson slammed the lawsuit and said, “The lawsuit filed by R. Lance Hill regarding Road Housetoday 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.”

The studio has dismissed the use of AI to recreate actors’ voices, and that if AI was used at any time, it would have only been by the filmmakers during edits of the film’s early cuts, and not by the studio.

After much to and fro, the WGA has awarded Lance Hill a “story by” acknowledgement on the remake and the credit, “Based on the motion picture ‘Road House,’ Screenplay by David Lee Henry and Hilary Henkin, Story by David Lee Henry.”