Prime Video has taken the nostalgia bait and reimagined a cult classic 1989 movie for a new audience. The Road House remake stars Jake Gyllenhaal and features the first big-screen appearance of controversial fighter Conor McGregor. After many years spent in development hell, the movie was finally filmed in locations ranging from the Dominican Republic to the Florida Keys, and has been met with a surprisingly positive critical reception, including in our review.
Let’s dig into that troubled production a little more.
Filming Locations
Dominican Republic
Road House is set on an island in Florida called Glass Key, however, despite the setting leading many to assume that the movie was made in Florida, this island is fictional, created for the screenplay. The fictional locational allows the producers to be a little more creative with the setting, and the film would be shot largely in and around the Dominican Republic.
In an article in KeysNews, Florida Keys Film Commissioner Chad Newman revealed, “Ninety-nine percent of the movie is filmed in the D.R.” Locations named in the filming included Punta Cana and Santo Domingo, but there are a couple of cheeky scenes that would use some other locations for filming.
Old Seven-Mile Bridge, Florida Keys
Chad Newman would go on to reveal that one of only a few scenes filmed in Florida would be on the Old Seven-Mile Bridge, notable as it featured a local landmark considered to be almost a celebrity in its own right. Fred the Tree is a much-loved part of the community in Middle Keys, and revealed on its Facebook Page, with twenty-five thousand followers, that it would be seen in the film. The scenes were recorded in early December, as it is traditional for the tree to be decorated for the festive season, and you can see Fred in an early shot, when Gyllenhaal arrives in town, minus the Christmas decorations.
Fred the Tree, an iconic Florida Keys landmark, glimpsed briefly in the Road House remake | Image via Islamorada Times
Las Vegas
Eagle-eyed viewers would recognize that scenes from the film featuring Gyllenhaal weighing in against former UFC fighter Jay Hieron were recorded at a real UFC fight in Vegas. UFC fans were stunned to see the filming taking place before UFC 285 in March 2023. The director arranged the face-off between the two, while the audience was given cues when to respond, and footage of Gyllenhaal entering the fight was also recorded.
Production Timeline
It has been a long road to release for Road House, so here’s a quick timeline of the production.
- The remake of the cult 80s classic has been in development hell for a long time, with the first reported interest in the project going back to 2013. MGM was interested in taking the remake on and went as far as naming a director and writer, but with no momentum, that team left.
- In 2015, Nick Cassavetes was drafted in to write and direct, but once again the film stalled and was placed in limbo until 2021 when Gyllenhaal became involved and Doug Liman took on directorial duties.
- A new writer was also brought in to get the script into shape, and by August 2022, Sheldon Turner had reworked an existing script, and the project was green-lit by Amazon Studios, which had taken on MGM by this time.
- Filming would start on August 23, 2022.
- The Vegas UFC scene was shot on March 3, 2023.
- In January 2024, it was announced that composer Volker Bertelmann had left the project, being replaced with Christophe Beck.
- The finished product premiered on March 8th, 2024, being shown as part of the Texas-based festival South by Southwest.
- Road House was released on Prime Video on March 21st, 2024.
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