Hollywood writer Lance Hill has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com over the upcoming remake of the 1989 film Road House with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role previously played by the late Patrick Swayze.

• Hill, 81, said in the lawsuit filed in federal court in California that Amazon never obtained a license to rewrite his script after he regained his copyright.
• The new film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, 43, is scheduled to premiere at the South by Southwest festival on March 8 and then move to Prime Video on March 21.
• Hill requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order preventing Amazon from distributing the film without a new license.

Hollywood writer Lance Hill sued Amazon.com on Tuesday to halt the remake of the 1989 film Road House, arguing that the film infringes on his rights to the original screenplay.

Hill, 81, said in the lawsuit filed in federal court in California that Amazon never obtained a license to rewrite his script after he regained his copyright.

He asked for an unspecified amount of financial damages and a court order preventing Amazon from distributing the film without a new license.

The new film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, 43, is scheduled to debut as an opening night film at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, on March 8, then move to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform on March 21.

A spokesperson for Amazon MGM Studios said the lawsuit was “completely without merit.”

Hill’s lawyer, Mark Toberoff, said major studios should “respect the fundamental rights and artistic prowess of creators whose empires are built on their sweat and toil.”

Hill wrote the script for Road House in 1986 and transferred the rights to the film’s producer, United Artists, later that year, the suit said.

US copyright law allows artists to terminate transfers and reclaim their rights decades later in some circumstances. Hill told the court that he notified Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which owns United Artists, in 2021 that he would reclaim his rights to the script.

MGM allegedly responded that Hill could not reclaim the copyright.

Amazon acquired MGM in March 2022. Hill said he regained his copyright last November, and that Amazon set a deadline to finish the film the day before the termination took effect.

Hill said Amazon took “extreme measures” to meet the deadline, including using artificial intelligence to recreate actors’ voices during the Screen Actors Guild strike, but did not finish the film until January.

An Amazon spokesperson denied that the new version uses any artificial intelligence instead of the actors’ voices.

Hill often used the pseudonym David Lee Henry in Hollywood and was best known for the film Road House.

Henry is credited with creating the story for the original Road House film, and is co-writing the screenplay with Hilary Henkin, 71.

Road House starred the late Patrick Swayze as Missouri bar bouncer James Dalton, and the 2024 remake features Gyllenhaal as a UFC middleweight fighter who becomes a bouncer at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys.

Hill’s other credits include: Harry Tracy, Desperado (1982), The Evil That Men Do (1984), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and Out for Justice (1991).

Swayze died in September 2009 at the age of 57 from pancreatic cancer.

The Road House remake is directed by Doug Liman, 58, who previously directed Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jumper, Edge Of Tomorrow and American Made.