Doug Liman attends the Road House premiere at SXSW after all

Amazon MGM Studios

After he said he would not attend the movie premiere Road house As a protest, Doug Liman is actually at the SXSW screening of his latest film, Hollywood Reporter He confirmed it.

In January, Liman wrote an open letter expressing his dismay at Amazon MGM not releasing the film theatrically, despite what he said were positive test screenings. “Amazon asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting movie theaters, and then they turned around and started using Road House to sell plumbing supplies,” he wrote at the time.

In protest, he wrote that he would boycott the film’s SXSW premiere. But on Friday evening, he was sitting in the audience at the film’s first screening.

The film is a remake of the 1989 film of the same name which starred the late Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott. (Title card at the top Road house The premiere said the offer was intended for Swayze.) In Liman’s version, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC member living out of his car when he’s approached by the owner of a roadside bar in Florida (Jessica Williams) about a job as a liar. He soon comes into conflict with a wealthy developer (Billy Magnussen) who is looking to take over the pub.

Before the film, Gyllenhaal loudly shouted to Lyman from the stage at the Paramount Theater: “I also want to thank our amazing director, he’s in the audience tonight.” The actor added that he and Liman have been friends for 15 years and had wanted to work with him for a long time: “He’s very cool and this movie is too.”