Hollywood's A.I. Wars Begin in Earnest Thanks to... 'Road House'?!?!
A screenwriter alleges Amazon used artificial intelligence to unlawfully complete the film during last's years WGA and SAG strikes.
We all knew that the battle over how Hollywood employs artificial intelligence was going to come to a head sooner rather than later - it was very much at the heart of last year’s dual strikes by the WGA and SAG, and with AI advancing so quickly, the battle over how any business employs artificial intelligence is going to come to a head sooner rather than later.
But I doubt many of us thought that a direct-to-streaming remake of a 1989 Patrick Swayze movie about a bar bouncer was going to be the movie that launched this battle in earnest.
And yet, that appears to be the case: R. Lance Hill (Out for Justice, 8 Million Ways to Die, The Evil That Men Do), who co-wrote the original Road House under the pen name David Lee Henry, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Amazon, who produced the upcoming remake of the cult classic, which will star Jake Gyllenhaal in the Swayze role. At the center of Hill’s lawsuit is an allegation that Amazon employed AI to complete the film during last year’s twin strikes because if they didn’t, they risked the rights to the original screenplay reverting back to Hill. Via Variety:
“Hill’s lawsuit alleges that he filed a petition with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2021, requesting that the copyright return to him after United Artists’ claim was set to expire in November 2023. The suit goes on to allege that Amazon ignored his claims and proceeded with the film, using artificial intelligence to replicate the voices of actors for ADR during the SAG strike in an effort to complete the film before the Nov. 10 deadline.”
In the court of public opinion, at least, this might appear to simply be a screenwriter’s attempt to milk a multi-billion dollar company for cash… except that one of the movie’s producers, Joel Silver (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Matrix) has already made similar allegations:
“This isn’t the first time the AI accusation has been floated — when producer Joel Silver was fired from Amazon in Nov. 2023 over verbal abuse, sources told Variety that the producer was actually being penalized for raising concerns over the streamer’s use of AI to complete Road House. Amazon strongly denied the allegation.”
Silver is an icon who rose to prominence in the 1980s - which is to say, the guy has a reputation for being somewhat of a prickly pear. It wouldn’t be that hard to believe he was using the AI issue to deflect from the charges that he was verbally abusive, and it wouldn’t be that hard to believe that Hill and his lawyers have simply seized on Silver’s accusation for their own benefit.
But then again, Amazon is evil, and it’s not even remotely difficult to believe that they did something so insidious.
One could point to the fact that Gyllenhaal is currently making the rounds promoting the film as evidence that the AI allegation is BS - surely, the star of the movie wouldn’t be okay with having a computer doing his work for him, right? - except that a) Gyllenhaal may feel it’s not in his best interest to alienate Amazon, and b) actors, God love ‘em, are not always the most astute individuals, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Gyllenhaal genuinely could not tell the difference between his authentic voice and a version of his voice generated by artificial intelligence. It’s also not beyond the realm of possibility that he hasn’t even seen the film - actors don’t watch their own work as frequently as they do. (Also - and I admit, this is some inside baseball, and it’s unfair of me to bring it up when I can’t get into specifics - but I happen to know that Gyllenhaal is capable of throwing his collaborators under the bus when it suits him.) So I don’t think Gyllenhaal’s participation in the promotional circuit is indicative of anything other than the guy wanting people to watch his movie.
Now, here’s where things get really messed up:
I don’t think we’ll ever learn the truth about what’s going on here.
See, the way these lawsuits almost always go is that there’s an out-of-court settlement… and out-of-court settlements usually include ironclad NDAs. The way we can expect this to end, then, is with Hill getting a check in exchange for keeping his yap shut.
It’s in Amazon’s best interest to settle because they last thing they want is for there to be any kind of official legal investigation that could potentially expose their wrongful use of AI and whatever they have to pay Hill is going to be a pittance in the scheme of their overall bottom line, and it’s in Hill’s best interest to accept the settlement because otherwise this thing could be dragged out in court for years and years and his attorneys could wind up making more money from the end result than he does… to say nothing of the fact that Hill is 81-years-old, and he might not live to see the resolution if he doesn’t get this conflict wrapped up ASAP, and if he were to die while the case was ongoing, his parting gift to his heirs would ostensibly to be to drop the lawsuit in their lap.
I would imagine Amazon will be especially eager to make this all go away given that Road House is already enmeshed in controversy: the film’s well-respected director, Doug Liman (Swingers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Edge of Tomorrow), is already publicly boycotting the movie over Amazon’s decision not to give it a theatrical release (this despite Liman allegedly being aware that a theatrical release was never on the agenda in the first place)… and the film’s co-star, UFC fighter Conor McGregor, was recently accused of sexual assault (the case was dropped in October)… and that’s on top of the aforementioned brouhaha involving Joel Silver. There’s no way Amazon could ever have anticipated remaking a 35-year-old action movie would be such a headache, and I’m sure they’d like to forget they even made the thing STAT.
Road House will premiere at SXSW on March 9 before debuting on Prime Video on March 21.