Doug Liman's Road House remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal has had a rough road, Variety reported.

The original film was released in 1989 starring Patrick Swayze. This year's version will premiere on March 8 at SXSW and will be released on Prime Video on March 21.

The movie's premise centers on a former UFC middleweight fighter who finds himself working at a Florida Keys roadhouse as a bouncer. He then realizes that things aren't as they seem.

The behind-the-scenes even before the movie is set to premiere rivals that of the film's actual plot. Liman wrote a guest column at Deadline to air his grievances against the circumstances of having his film denied a theatrical release.

But the plot thickens which involved notorious private investigator Anthony Pellicano, producer Joel Silver (who was allegedly fired by Amazon MGM Studios) and the intervention from high-powered entertainment and media CEO Ari Emanuel.

It didn't start that way, though.

In November 2021, MGM was run by Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. They started negotiating with Liman to helm the project, with Gyllenhaal to take over Swayze's role in the original film. Silver, who produced the original movie for MGM, was set to also produce the remake. At that time, MGM still focused on releasing movies for theaters and never thought about the streaming side of the business.

However, when Amazon acquired MGM in March 2022 for $8.5 billion, Road House's theatrical release was now in question.

De Luca and Abdy left MGM in July 2022 for Warner Bros. Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke pulled the movie out of turnaround and was about to greenlight the film. According to Variety's sources, the filmmakers as well as Gyllenhall had to make a choice: to make the movie for $60 million and have it released in theaters or accept $85 million and have the film be available only for streaming.

The source said, “They took all the money.”

Amazon and Liman have not commented.

On Aug. 2, 2022, Road House was confirmed to be an Amazon Prime Video movie. Salke said that it was going to be released to stream “for our global audience.” Both Liman and Silver agreed on the press release. Liman even stated, “I'm thrilled to put my own spin on the beloved ‘Road House' legacy,” with Silver adding that he was “so excited to bring this newly imagined version to audiences around the world.”

However, Silver was continuing to push for a release in cinemas and allegedly grew combative enough that the studio was going to cut ties with him. Enter Emanuel, who lobbied on Silver's behalf. He reportedly talked to Salke and asker her not to fire Silver. It was Emanuel who hired Pellicano to make sure Silver would be able to keep his job.

As if things couldn't get more chaotic, two-time UFC champion Conor McGregor was reported to joining the cast. However, he was facing multiple sexual assault and violence charges against women at the time, a claim he has denied.

Despite Emanuel's pleas to Salke, Amazon ended up firing Silver due to his alleged verbal abuse of several female staffers, which included marketing head Sue Kroll and film head Courtenay Valenti.

This brings us back to Liman and his open letter to boycott the film when it premieres at SXSW.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens when Road House makes its world premiere on March 8. Its stars could still be there. Gyllenhaal and McGregor are joined by Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior and Lukas Gage.

After Road House makes its debut at SXSW, it will be released on Prime Video on March 21.