It had all the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster: engaging plot, bankable star in the form of Patrick Swayze, and a soundtrack that proved exciting. But when Road House was released in 1989, it failed to deliver the crowds that were expected and instead met a rather quiet release that saw it sent straight to VHS.
For the uninitiated, Road House tells the story of a barroom bouncer, Dalton, who is considered the best in the business. He’s summoned to a small Missouri town where the Double Deuce – the local nightclub – is terrorised nightly by some rowdy locals. Ultimately, it’s his job to bring peace to the bar so the owner can move forward with plans to remodel and expand. Of course, there’s a lot of action, some violence and even a dash of romance that are thrown into the mix, but even then the response to Road House was on the whole underwhelming. It came as a surprise then, to hear Amazon was intent on rebooting the film, even putting critically acclaimed star Jake Gyllenhaal in the film, alongside UFC champion Conor McGregor.
Now, fans have been granted their first look at the project with images being released showing a notably swole McGregor in the role. While it doesn’t give away much in terms of plot or release dates, it is known that McGregor won’t be portraying himself. As a spokesperson for McGregor expressed, the star “is very excited to expand his storied career to Hollywood and join Jake Gyllenhaal in this reimagining of Road House – a beloved classic. While fighting remains his top focus, this is the beginning of another successful venture in the McGregor empire.”
More recently, McGregor announced that Netflix would be releasing a four-part series detailing his professional career. Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the infamous UFC champion expressed to a fan asking about his injuries and potential return to the octagon, “I crushed the metatarsal bones in my foot three weeks before the [Khabib Nurmagomedov] fight, and still made the walk. All injuries are not the same. You will see it all on Netflix when a serious injury with a high [percentage] of never recovering occurs, it is just simply not the same.”
Speaking about the documentary, McGregor said: “The premise of ‘I don’t work as hard as I used to since succeeding financially’ will be debunked fully. You are going to witness insanity in scientific form. This documentary will be out before my next fight – Episode 1 of 4 – and the full four will be out before my Hollywood debut in the notorious Road House. You’re about to see what’s what here. And it ain’t free.”
Alongside Gyllenhaal and McGregor, the Road House reboot also features the likes of Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Lukas Gage, Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle and more. Talks of the reboot first swirled in 2021 and has been a top priority for the production company. Doug Liman of The Bourne Triology has been tapped to direct, with Joel Silver on board to produce via his company Silver Pictures.
According to Deadline, the official synopsis for the reboot reads: “The new take follows a former UFC fighter (Jake Gyllenhaal) who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.”
