Director of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House remake boycotts film premiere in protest of Prime Video

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Liman, whose directing credits include Edge of Tomorrow and the 2005 film Mr & Mrs Smith, has now called out Amazon’s decision to stream the movie, which is “so clearly made for the big screen”. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free However, Liman claimed that Amazon had “no interest in supporting cinemas” after it decided to stream Road House exclusively on Prime Video. Without movie theaters we won’t have movie stars.” open image in gallery Doug Liman despaired over the future of cinemas as he called out Amazon rolling the film out exclusively on its streaming platform Liman said that while he is not opposed to streaming movies – since he made one of Amazon’s first original movies for streaming – he is “opposed to Amazon gutting MGM and its theatrical business”. “But a computer doesn’t know what it is like to share the experience of laughing and cheering and crying with a packed audience in a dark theater – and if Amazon has its way, future audiences won’t know either.” When Amazon Studios announced it had acquired MGM, Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios said in a statement: “We welcome MGM employees, creators, and talent to Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and we look forward to working together to create even more opportunities to deliver quality storytelling to our customers.” MGM, founded in 1924, has brought Amazon a catalogue of more than 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows from major franchises.