Viola Davis: one of the undisputed greats whose penchant for commanding a space knows no bounds. Jake Gyllenhaal: a consistently fantastic chameleon who captures extreme energy just as much as that energy captures him. Dave Bautista: a pro wrestler whose rise in the dramatic world has been one of, if not the most exciting to watch out of all the big names who have found themselves in this industry.

Evidently, none of them stand a chance against the combined forces of Awkwafina (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and John Cena (Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad).

Per FlixPatrol, Jackpot! — Prime Video‘s latest action comedy flick that has impressed only a few critics thus far— continues to dominate the streamer’s film charts on this day of Aug. 19. Its lightning-fast ascension has seen it stand over the likes of My Spy: The Eternal City (Bautista’s profoundly unnecessary spy comedy sequel to 2020’s My Spy), The Woman King (Davis’ historical pulse-pounder whose lack of Oscar nominations was a blow to the Academy’s reputation), and Road House (Gyllenhaal’s reimagining of the 1989 action flick of the same name that might as well have been an original film).

Questionably flaunting a 32% critic approval rating and a 48% audience approval rating, Jackpot! features Awkwafina as Katie, a struggling actress who happens upon a winning lottery ticket. The catch? It’s the year 2030, and California has ed a law that allows losing ticket holders to kill the winner in hopes of claiming the prize for themselves. Beside her is Cena as Noel, a freelance lottery protection agent (no, seriously) who takes it upon himself to protect Katie in exchange for 10% of the cash prize.

The premise, then, is as fun as can be, but it sounds like the Jackpot! brain trust didn’t make the most of it. If you’re the type to rely solely on your own judgment, the film is available to stream exclusively on Prime Video.

In search of a legal series that strikes a balance between outstanding storytelling like 12 Angry Men and the ever-evolving tension of How to Get Away with Murder? Apple TV has something just for you. Presumed Innocent is quickly becoming the talk of the town, and this new series is based on the same-titled legal thriller book published in 1987.

Since its premiere, Presumed Innocent has been serving up the suspense, featuring a dramatic representation of a high-stakes judicial battle. Now, the penultimate episode is about to shake things up in a major way. 

What is Presumed Innocent about?

Presumed Innocent is a riveting judicial drama about Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal), a well-known prosecutor in a major metropolis. Carolyn Polhemus, Rusty’s colleague and former lover, is brutally murdered, which sets off the plot. Despite his position and reputation, Rusty swiftly becomes the main suspect in the crime. Throughout the series, layers of secrets and lies are exposed, revealing a web of governmental corruption, personal vendettas, and hidden relationships. 

As the case unfolds, the plot delves into the strains on Rusty’s marriage to his wife Barbara, as well as his bond with his son Kyle. Tommy Molto, the prosecutor in charge of Rusty’s case, and Raymond Horgan, Rusty’s defense attorney, are two key characters. Each plays an important role in the unfolding narrative, bringing their reasons and suspicions to light.

Where and when can we watch episode 7 of Presumed Innocent?

Episode 7 of Presumed Innocent will make its way to premiere on July 19, 2024, 12:00 am Eastern Time. Presumed Innocent is set for an 8 episode run, making us one step closer to the concluding finale as the trial takes center stage. Presumed Innocent streams exclusively on Apple TV Plus, and the platform offers a 7-day free trial if you’re looking for a quick binge.  

What to expect in episode 7?

The seventh episode is titled “The Witness” and will continue with Raymond’s defense and the back-and-forth with the prosecutor’s counsel, as well as a startling event that might derail the ongoing proceedings.

Before we get into what might happen next, let’s go back a few steps. Rusty’s trial begins in episode 5 titled Pregame. While his trial preparations are underway, Rusty’s marriage appears to be disintegrating, as his wife Barbara is having an affair with a bartender at a neighborhood bar. Elsewhere, we see Raymond, Rusty’s lawyer, experiencing great pressure while working on the case. One sequence showed his brain exploding, but it was all a dream, symbolizing how much stress he was under. 

Rusty faces overwhelming odds, so Raymond hatches a scheme to get Barbara to testify in his favor in court to strengthen his case. Though his prosecutor, Tommy Molto, has a personal grudge against Rusty. Rusty becomes even more anxious about the outcome when he discovers how well-prepared he is for the case and Tommy uses his opening statement to try and persuade the jury to side with him. 

Taylor Swift has been in the spotlight since she was 16, and, as she grew up in the spotlight, she has also experienced dating in the public eye. And over the years, Taylor Swift has experienced countless misogynistic remarks from strangers over her dating history. From people complaining about how many people she dated (which weren’t that many), to jokes ing her personal life to write her songs, people are still stuck with the 2013 mentality when it comes to Swift’s boyfriends. So let’s take a look at all her boyfriends, ranked from our least, to our most favorite!

11. Matty Healy

Cue to “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”

Matty Healy and Taylor Swift’s relationship might’ve been short, as it lasted just a bit over a fortnight, but their romance had been a long time coming. There were rumors about the two of them going on for almost a decade, and they got together in the Spring of 2023. Due to the public pressure and other details we might never know, Healy allegedly ghosted Swift after promises of forever. Healy is believed to be the target of her vitriol on her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

10. John Mayer

Taylor Swift and John Mayer were briefly linked in 2009 as they collaborated on the song “Half of My Heart.” Although Mayer initially praised Swift’s writing skills, he belittled her after their breakup, which resulted in the famous breakup song “Dear John” from 2010’s Speak Now. He responded with “Paper Doll.” The worst detail about their short-lived romance is that Taylor was barely 19, and Mayer was 32.

9. Jake Gyllenhaal

Since Jake Gyllenhall never gave back Taylor’s scarf, he is pretty high on the “worst boyfriend” list. The actor and Swift dated briefly in 2012, and he’s believed to be the inspiration behind Swift’s masterpiece “All Too Well,” and its longer version, “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” The brief affair had a huge emotional impact on Swift, who was 20 at the time, meanwhile, Gyllenhaal was almost 30.

8. Calvin Harris

Taylor Swift’s romance with DJ Calvin Harris was the most public she’s ever had. The singer posted many pictures of the two of them during their relationship between 2015 and 2016, which at the time was her longest relationship to date. As it turns out, they co-wrote Harris’ hit single with Rihanna, “This Is What You Came For,” though he had tried to discredit her skills beforehand by claiming he wouldn’t collaborate with her, and jumped on the hate train as soon as her reputation took a hit. They’re no longer on speaking , but Calvin’s wife itted to listening to Taylor when he’s not around.

7. Joe Alwyn

Joe Alwyn was Taylor Swift’s longest relationship, and things between them seemed fairly fine, until they weren’t. Alwyn, a largely unknown actor at the time, started dating Swift in 2016 amid her drama with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, when her reputation was at her lowest. They kept a low profile throughout their over-six-year relationship.

While neither publicly spoke about why their relationship ended, some fans believe Alwyn didn’t enjoy Taylor’s larger-than-life persona, and would’ve preferred she kept a low-key profile. Alas, she wanted to be “Bejeweled,” and fans speculate several songs off 2022’s Midnights are about him. The Tortured Poets Department seems to have spared the gory details and focused on Matty Healy. Joe is speculated to have inspired the gut-wrenching track five, “So Long, London,” though, and that’s pretty damning.

6. Joe Jonas

Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift briefly dated in 2009, a relationship which ended with him breaking up with her on a 30-second call. Swift embarked on a smear campaign that she regretted later. They eventually got over it and became friends and started hanging out, with Swift even alluding to her sending him baby gifts in “Invisible String.” Now she’s closer to his ex-wife Sophie Turner, so they might not be on good .

5. Harry Styles

The pairing that got us bops like “Out of the Woods,” “Is It Over Now,” and “Style” was none other than Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. The romance was brief but intense, as revealed in the vault tracks from 1989 (Taylor’s Version). The two of them reportedly broke up on vacation after a short romance, but they were seen speaking at the 2021 Grammy Awards and catching up, so they look like they got over whatever drama there was.

4. Conor Kennedy

Taylor dated Conor Kennedy briefly in the summer of 2012, in between her romances with Jake Gyllenhaal and Harry Styles. The breakup wasn’t dramatic and seemed to have run its course, but Swift reportedly wrote “Begin Again” about their short-lived romance.

3. Tom Hiddleston

Taylor and Tom Hiddleston dated briefly in 2016, and it seemed to be the wrong person, at the wrong time. They gave us the iconic Rome vacation, the I heart TS T-shirt, and the adorable MET Gala dance, but for Taylor, he was just the “Getaway Car,” and it didn’t last. He is still one of her best exes and was always respectful to her.

2. Taylor Lautner

The absolute best Taylor Swift ex is Taylor Lautner. They dated briefly in 2010, and he was the muse for “Back to December.” Taylor was always there for her and they reunited in 2023 to film “I Can See You Now,” to the delight of Lautner’s wife, Tay Lautner.

1. Travis Kelce

Taylor and Travis started dating in July 2023, and it seems to be the best relationship she’s ever had. The two have been publicly ing each other since the beginning. With many insiders claiming this is “The One” for both of them, Travis doesn’t seem to be the least affected by her megastar status and cherishes her the way he should. We stan this, and believe in the rom-com that is Tayvis.

Everyone is human, including Hollywood actors and actresses. Sure, they have made it to arguably the most luxurious industry in the whole world, usually look great, and make tons of money off each project. However, they also have their personal struggles, including Jake Gyllenhaal.

Throughout his career, the 43-year-old starred in numerous acclaimed movies, becoming one of the most well-known actors in the modern world. The list of films he starred in includes hits like Nightcrawler, Southpaw, Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain or Zodiac, to name a few. In, we presume, each of them, Gyllenhaal not only acted his socks off, but also wore glasses or lenses. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t see a thing.

How long has Jake Gyllenhaal been legally blind?

It turns out you can be punched like a boxer in Southpaw or fighting Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Far From Home while having an eyesight so bad you literally can’t see anything in front of you without your glasses. That’s what Jake Gyllenhaal has been doing.

Although it’s not something the actor has spoken too much about in public, Gyllenhaal is in fact legally blind. He wears glasses or lenses on a daily basis to improve his vision. And this isn’t a correction without which he could perform his daily tasks, since the actor has a 20/1250 vision, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Fortunately for himself, Gyllenhaal has learned to live with the vision issues he’s been having since he was a kid. He sees it as a trait that allows him to be by himself when needed. “I like to think it’s advantageous. I’ve never known anything else. When I can’t see in the morning, before I put on my glasses, it’s a place where I can be with myself,” Gyllenhaal told THR.

His not-so-perfect vision has also helped the Road House lead to perform certain roles. For example, he revealed that in Southpaw, when a police officer tells his character about a certain tragedy that had happened in his family, Gyllenhaal had his lenses taken off. He did so to “listen more closely” and have the scene be more immersive.

Unfortunately, it was also a root of a few issues in the actor’s upbringing. In 2017’s interview with The Telegraph, Gyllenhaal itted his corrective glasses as a kid made him an “easy target” for bullies.

What does being a legally blind person mean?

For those who are unaware, legal blindness is when your vision is 20/200 or less. That means if an object is 200 feet away, you’d have to standing 20 feet away from it to see it clearly. Whereas, people with regular vision could be standing 200 feet away and see it without any issues.

With that in mind, Gyllenhaal’s 20/1250 vision is a significant level of sight loss, as losing your glasses or lenses in the public basically means you’re losing your sight if you don’t have spare ones. Even so, Gyllenhaal has overcome the drawbacks it caused him in childhood and has embraced his legal blindness as an advantage.

Stephen King may be known for his Netflix recommendations (and for his horror novels too, I guess), but the author’s eye for media doesn’t discriminate. Indeed, he’s more than happy to point us all in the right direction on Prime Video too.

And while it doesn’t look like he’ll be sounding any gong as loudly as he did with Baby Reindeer, the Carrie mastermind seems to have had a similar reaction to the Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House film not too long ago; vague, blunt, and above all indicative that King is giving this one two thumbs up, and would give three if he could.

It may not have exactly flown in the eyes of critics, but it’s also not hard to see why Stephen King took such a liking to the film, mostly because it’s right there in the tweet; Jake Gyllenhaal. Indeed, while it’s likely that King named the lead actor to differentiate it from the original 1989 Patrick Swayze-led film, the mirthful watchability of Gyllenhaal as Elwood Dalton was undoubtedly the best part of Road House, and is perhaps the very reason that King should, in fact, have to say no more.

Besides, if he did say more, he’d probably have to mention the frail dialogue and the fact that, as a remake, Road House makes no sense; with more or less everything changed from the original, one can’t help but wonder why Road House didn’t style itself as an original movie, because shackling itself even mildly to the Patrick Swayze flick certainly did it no favors.

Road House is available to stream on Prime Video.

Jake Gyllenhaal is an exceptional actor, but things don’t always pan out as you want. But that doesn’t mean you don’t get the ideal result.

When it comes to original creations, Netflix seems to understand the game well and majorly dominates the court in this particular field. But for now, it has been stumped by Gyllenhaal’s attempt at dazzling not having the desired effect and that is having a chain reaction, leaving Netflix’s most-watched films like Irish Wish, Damsel, and the remake of the French classic, The Wages of War (currently getting glowing reviews from critics) in the dust across the globe.

Confused? Let me explain.

Gyllenhaal’s stab at playing former UFC middleweight fighter Elwood Dalton and bringing the 1989 cult classic Road House is still finding its feet on Prime Video after both critics and the audience found the story less appealing than the actor. But, but, but, it seems to have renewed love, faith, and interest in the original film starring Patrick Swayze, which is also available on Prime Video.

Whether it was disappointment sparked by the 2024 version that turned viewers to stream the OG film or a nostalgic need to see Gyllenhaal’s “great man” Swayze in the classic that was also slammed upon its release, only to become an icon in the history of cinema, Gyllenhaal has still managed to give Netflix a run for its money despite it looking particularly bleak for his remake performance-wise since it has been days since Road House premiered on Prime Video and it is yet to nab the top ranks. If this fails to make the bucks that went into its production, it would be the actor’s fourth film in a row – Ambulance, The Covenant, and Strange World – to not do well commercially.

But, as far as Prime Video vs Netflix goes, based on the way the 1989 film’s high points on Flix Patrol are climbing as it clings to its top rank of the streamer, it is only going to beat whatever title jumps next to Netflix’s top-watched list.

Our new Superman, David Corenswet, is already taking flight — production on the new movie is underway in Norway — but James Gunn still has his work cut out for him in finding the right person to rival Robert Pattinson as the nth new version of Batman. Although maybe the perfect choice is right in front of him.

Jake Gyllenhaal — who was a runner-up for Spider-Man back in Tobey Maguire’s day, don’t forget — was asked during the Road House press tour if he’d be up for playing the Dark Knight in director Andy Muschietti’s The Brave and the Bold, which will center on a fortysomething Bruce Wayne bonding with his son, Damian/Robin. The former Mysterio itted that “It would be an honor,” and, well, I rest my case. Why hasn’t Gunn given him a call already?

Do you want more proof that Gyllenhaal would be perfect for the role? He’s confirmed to have more star power and audience appeal than one of the few DC heroes already cast in Gunn’s rebooted universe, Peacemaker‘s John Cena. Why? Because he’s smashed the former WWE star into second place on the streaming charts.

Road House roasting Ricky Stanicky is more proof a new Batman deserves to begin

It’s official, Prime Video s just can’t get enough of Road House as the action drama has successfully KO-ed the competition to take the top spot on the platform’s charts. As per Flix Patrol, the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring remake is currently the most-watched movie title on Prime the world over. It’s so popular that it’s even helped launch the Patrick Swayze original as high as fourth place on the global ranking. As per Variety, Road House accrued an impressive 121.5 million minutes viewed on its first day alone.

Meanwhile, over in second place is Ricky Stanicky, a bro-y comedy film from Peter Farrelly (one half of the Farrelly brothers) that seems to have fallen through a time warp from the early 2010s. Zac Efron is ostensibly in the lead but it’s really John Cena’s movie, seeing as he is the title character — an actor hired to play Efron’s imaginary best friend. Cena’s really proved himself as an actor over the past few years, but even he apparently isn’t able to beat Gyllenhaal at his brutal, bare-chested best.

There’s really only one message for James Gunn to take from all this, then. The guy is willing and the people love him, so please, mister, cast Jake Gyllenhaal as Batman immediately. Sony and Marvel bizarrely don’t seem keen to bring him back into the Spider-Verse, so their loss could be DC’s gain if Gunn and company play their cards right. Hold up, play… cards… playing cards. Forget everything I just said, what about casting Gyllenhaal as the Joker? Or maybe both Batman and the Joker? Now that’s something we haven’t seen before…

Being punched in the face by a mixed martial arts world champion will ruin your work day. But, that’s exactly what happened to Oscar-nominated Jake Gyllenhaal when he and UFC superstar Conor McGregor brought the reimagined Road House to life.

Now streaming on Amazon Prime, Gyllenhaal heads the cult classic reboot as Dalton, a rough and tough ex-UFC combatant hired as a bouncer at a Florida-based bar. Meanwhile, McGregor’s Knox has been hired on to send the pesky Dalton back where he came from.

The movie builds toward a hand-to-hand duel between Dalton and McGregor. And while speaking with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show ahead of Road House’s premiere, Gyllenhaal revealed that McGregor – here making his cinematic debut – unintentionally caught him with a punch when they were working on a late-night fight scene.

“By mistake, he clocked me in the face. We would do a take where we were fighting and fake fighting, and then we’d go watch the monitor to see it back, to see what worked. And he was always great with me. He would show me, tell me to do things, ‘Turn your head, move a little bit more this way to try and make it look more real.’ And it was late because we shot a lot of these fight scenes at night. So, it was like 3 a.m. and he was talking to me really close. And he was like, ‘Yeah, that left hook looks good. But then when you do it, like,’ boom! He hit me by mistake.”

“And I was like, ‘Oh!’ And he was like, ‘Oh!'”

Gyllenhaal trained in martial arts for two months to prepare for the task of Dalton. But, pretending to fight someone who has captured two divisional titles in the world’s premiere mixed martial arts promotion is intimidating, even if it is acting:

“When I got word that he was going to be doing it, I was super psyched because they chased him for a long time to play the part. But, then I got totally terrified and I thought, ‘Oh, God, I actually have to fake fight this guy, and I got to look like I can.'”

Before stepping on set McGregor established himself as a combat icon after an iconic run inside the UFC’s Octagon, which saw him winning both the 155 and 145-pound titles. In 2016, “Notorious” became the first fighter to hold two UFC belts simultaneously. With a professional record of 22-6 with 19 wins by KO/TKO, the brash Irishman seamlessly fit the role of a terrifying bruiser in Road House.

You can check out WGTC’s review of Road House here.

Fiction, anecdotes, and storytelling in general have long informed the many values within a society, but the flawed nature of the human mind constantly subjects those lessons to distortion, and with every new mind that gets involved, it can get to the point where the end result can be completely different from what it began as. And, even if that result isn’t a downgrade, this distortion can’t be ignored.

Road House, Prime Video’s latest original film and a reimagining of the Patrick Swayze-led 1989 movie of the same name, aggressively captures the spirit of that observation, because no matter your stance on Road House (a film whose strengths and weaknesses effectively cancel each other out, with a slight edge in favor of the strengths), there’s no denying the shadow casted by the film’s most pervasive issue, which can be neatly summed up with a simple question; why is this a remake?

Indeed, at no point has Road House been particularly shy about just how different it is from the 1989 film on a textual level – swapping out Dalton’s bouncer background for a UFC one, a major scenic divergence in Florida from the original’s Missouri, and just about everything else – but by marking itself as a remake or reimagining of the 1989 film, it sets the expectation that it will at least revisit the thematic spirit of the original, but Road House shows little to no interest in doing that.

That’s not to say that Road House was necessarily obliged to reexamine the original film’s ideas (although, given the original’s unrealized mileage, the lack of Road House‘s doing so is still cause for some disappointment), but it nevertheless raises the question of why Road House associated itself with the 1989 film at all; when you change things up as much as Road House does, it makes more sense to just make a whole new film at that point. Road House in its entirety, then, makes that question of “why” an entirely unavoidable one when it didn’t have to, and there’s something somewhat insincere about that.

In any case, as an entirely original movie, Road House is solid entertainment with consistent-enough execution to make you feel like it was two hours well killed (“killed,” in this case, being the less-lucrative colleague of “spent”); at the very least, you’ll close Prime Video with all of your brain cells intact after watching the highs marginally outplay the lows, and that’s worth something.

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as former UFC fighter Elwood Dalton, who gets recruited as a bouncer by a Florida Keys roadhouse called the Road House—a joke that, sadly, is indicative of Road House‘s grasp on comedy as a whole. There, his stoic presence is welcomed by everyone except the rich Brandt family, who use everything at their disposal, from corrupt police sheriffs to off-the-chain fixer Knox (Conor McGregor) to run Dalton out of town and the Road House into the ground.

Unsurprisingly as ever, Gyllenhaal is in top form as Dalton, moving through the rugged, humid backdrop of the Glass Keys with an amusingly mythological air; the protagonist is entirely a product of himself amongst a sea of characters who, by contrast, are spiritually shackled to the history and infrastructure of the Sunshine State, and the way Gyllenhaal carries this musclebound sage suggests that, on some level, Dalton is aware of this. How else could he so successfully merge kind-hearted cheekiness with raw blink-and-you’ll-miss-it murder?

McGregor’s Knox, meanwhile, is a human cluster bomb of Dalton’s worst nightmare; if Dalton were a monster, he would be Knox, and the feral mercuriality that first-time actor McGregor brings makes him almost as watchable as Gyllenhaal. It’s a shame that Knox wasn’t given more to do (even then, it’s hardly the biggest problem with the plot), but the real-life former UFC fighter deserves a tip of the hat for stepping into this cinematic ring as confidently and successfully as he does here.

While Dalton and Knox are both very strong, the same can’t be said about Road House‘s writing. For a film whose protagonist tends to find humor in things, most of Road House‘s attempts at chuckles (and there are plenty) are too self-serving and contextually dissonant to be any good. The dialogue, meanwhile, falls at a few too many hurdles (subtlety, purpose, excruciating attempts at being meta, you name it), to be anything more than a non-fatal but still detrimental burden to the film’s more serviceable-to-great aspects.

One such aspect is the plot, which is precisely what you’d expect from a pulpy action thriller, and frankly, that’s absolutely for the best; a flat plot, after all, is better than an unnecessarily messy one, and, in this case, a flat plot is also a plot that won’t distract from the film’s action set pieces, which Liman and cinematographer Henry Braham craft with commendable success. The fight choreography is great when it’s great, and even when it’s not, the uncooked punchiness of it all still delivers, albeit in a very peculiar manner that might not appeal to everyone. Ultimately, when Liman clearly has an idea for how he wants a scene to go, the result is pretty awesome; if only he had a couple more of those ideas, then maybe Road House would have truly stood out in a big way.

But, it doesn’t, though that’s still mostly okay; Road House, at the end of the day, is a welcome, unceremoniously dynamic addition to the action thriller library, with a pair of fantastic performances outweighing lazy dialogue and a plot that gives space for the stunt workers to take center stage, even if said space wasn’t used up quite as completely as Road House would have preferred.

It’s a narrow victory that’s counteracted by the fact that it seemingly just called itself a Road House remake for the sake of calling itself a Road House remake, and that subsequently muddles the Road House identity as a whole; with two vastly different movies now sharing the mantle, what might the best version of a Road House movie even be?

But, so long as you can mentally make quick work of that little discordance (and you should, as that’s a question for another arena entirely), Road House is anything but a waste of time.

We’ve all had to deal with nasty co-workers in the past, but fans of Rebecca Ferguson were surprised to hear her recount an experience with a co-star who screamed at her on set.

Speaking to Josh Smith on the Reign podcast the Dune: Part Two star recalled one particularly traumatic job in which “an absolute idiot of a co-star” yelled and generally acted unprofessional and condescending towards her. “This human being was being so insecure and angry, because this person couldn’t get the scenes out.” Whilst it happened in front of the crew, she says that no one had her back due to the co-star being number one on a call sheet.

During the interview, Ferguson makes sure not to name the individual, but the story does have a happy ending with the actress standing up for herself, “I being so scared, and I looked at this person and I said “you can F off. I’m gonna work with a tennis ball.”” Honestly, good for her, whoever this person was, they sound like a real piece of work. Fans of the actress commended her for standing up to the unnamed co-star with fellow actors such as Dwayne Johnson even responding in . 

But many were also angry, not at Rebecca obviously, but at whoever it was that spoke to her like that. People on X (formerly Twitter) jumped to the defense of the star, vowing to get their hands on this rude person one way or another. 

Who screamed at Rebecca Ferguson?

Ferguson has made the wise choice not to reveal who she was talking about as doing so could come back to bite her. But fans still want to know, especially because they are clearly very famous, to the point that no one was willing to call them out on their behavior. In all honesty we don’t know for sure who it is, however, there are theories. These theories are based on circumstantial evidence at best so it’s probably best not to draw any hard conclusions from these just yet.

Fans threw a few names out there, such as Hugh Grant, who starred in Florence Foster Jenkins with Ferguson. The evidence against him is that the two have very few photos together from after the film, and in the photos that do exist, they are standing very far apart. There have been a few cases where Grant has been somewhat abrasive and rude to people, even when he knows others are watching, so this theory could hold water. Others suggested it could be Tom Cruise although there’s very little evidence to back that up, she’s worked with Cruise on multiple Mission Impossible movies and is set to appear in the next installment set to be released in 2025.

Interestingly, Dwayne Johnson was suggested by multiple people. The pair worked together on 2014’s Hercules, but they have zero photos or interviews together. If that’s the case then Johnson’s tweet takes on a whole new context, instead of offering it could just be an attempt to cover up and make himself appear innocent; whilst Johnson’s reputation has gone down a bit recently, I doubt he’s this bad of a person, but hey, anything’s possible in Hollywood.

We could go on all day listing each and every one of Rebecca Ferguson’s famous co-stars, we have Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor and many more. It’s a real mystery, but knowing the internet, the truth will be revealed eventually.

On paper, it was supposed to be a grand slam dunk. One of the most beloved brawling movies of all time in Road House, one of the best actors around in Jake Gyllenhaal and a company that was eschewing standard moviemaking in Amazon Studios.

Unfortunately, nothing turned out as anyone would have hoped. The director is boycotting the film and the original screenwriter is now suing Amazon Studios for copyright infringement. How did it all go so wrong?

Let’s start with the start: the original Roadhouse. Released in 1989, Roadhouse tells the story of James Dalton, a cooler hired to turn a raucous honkytonk club into a respectable enterprise. Played by Patrick Swayze with enough swag and sex appeal to fill a swimming pool, it’s an American classic. Oh, and Dalton has a black belt in karate AND a Ph.D. in philosophy.

The plot is fairly straightforward. Dalton annoys the wrong person when he fires a bunch of employees and in the process finds himself in the crosshairs of the town’s business tycoon and drug lord, named Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara), who holds the town under his iron grip by using his henchman and intimidation. Dalton tries to improve the Double Deuce while Wesley tries to sabotage the club and kill him. It also stars Kelly Lynch as a love interest and Sam Elliot as a fellow bouncer.

The remake, which has gone through various actors and writers over the years, is set for release on Prime Video on Mar. 21. It stars Gyllenhaal as a UFC middleweight fighter who ends up working at a “roadhouse” in Florida. The movie supposedly follows some of the same story beats as the original. The original movie was written by R. Lance Hill, who goes by the pen name of David Lee Henry. This brings us to the lawsuit.

The ‘Roadhouse’ Lawsuit

This is where things get juicy. Hill filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios along with its parent company, Amazon Studios. He alleges that Amazon deliberately ignored his attempts to get back the rights to the screenplay because it would interfere with the company’s remake. He says Amazon put a deadline on finishing the film (Nov. 10) before the copyright expired and Hill would be able to reclaim his work.

Hill asked the U.S. Copyright Office to return the work to him after the rights expired in November 2023. Hill claims that Amazon didn’t finish the remake in time, due to the writer’s strike, until the end of January this year. The complaint says that the studio “steamrolled ahead with the production of a remake of the 1989 Film derived from Hill’s Screenplay.” To do this, he alleges, the studio used generative artificial intelligence to recreate actors’ voices and finish the film. If this is true, it would mean that Amazon broke the collective bargaining agreements of the strike with SAG-AFTRA and the Director’s Guild of America.

This lawsuit has huge implications for the future of Hollywood itself, and could very well set a precedent for how studios are allowed to use AI moving forward. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of them by the original authors of works like Friday the 13th and The Terminator. There’s a provision in copyright law that allows authors to reclaim the rights to their work after a period of time, generally around 30 years. This is of course bad news for studios who stand to lose rights to some of the most popular and lucrative franchises in movie history.

The lawsuit also says that Amazon used AI to finish the film at a “considerable additional cost” instead of honoring his copyright claim. An Amazon spokesperson released a statement denying the claims.

“The lawsuit filed by R. Lance Hill regarding Road House today is completely without merit and numerous allegations are categorically false. The film does not use any AI in place of actors’ voices. We look forward to defending ourselves against these claims.”

Hill wants damages and a court order that validates his November 11, 2023 claim on the work. Amazon Studios, he said, didn’t have “rights to make, produce or distribute the 2024 Remake or any other post-termination derivative work based in whole or in part on the Screenplay and/or the 1989 Film (as derived from the Screenplay).”

A lot of things could end up happening here, but most likely they’ll go back and forth for a while and then come to an agreement aka they’ll pay Hill enough money that he won’t care whether or not Amazon used AI or not. If he sticks to his guns and takes it to court, things could get interesting.

This fiasco is the latest controversy in a movie that’s just been mired in them. Before the lawsuit, the movie’s director got into it with Amazon over its release being streamed and not put in actual movie theaters. Director Doug Liman decided to boycott the film’s premiere because he claims the studio promised him the film would be released in theaters. He released a fiery statement saying that the studio “seems intent on burying” the movie in streaming and not on “the big screen where great movies and movie stars belong.” Studios should put up a sign, he said, that says, “TALENT BEWARE, NOT WELCOME HERE.”

Interestingly, Gyllenhaal recently was interviewed by Total Film and pushed back on those claims: “I adore Doug’s tenacity, and I think he is advocating for filmmakers, and film in the cinema, and theatrical releases. But, I mean, Amazon was always clear that it was streaming.”

Hill’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, argues that studios keep exploiting talent despite “the asset base of all major entertainment studios” being content. “It is time they respect the fundamental rights and artistry of creators on whose sweat and toil their empires are based.”

Who doesn’t like Jake Gyllenhaal? Unlike many Hollywood mainstays, the 43-year-old actor has managed to avoid any of the bad press that so many of his contemporaries have faced in recent years. From Donnie Darko to Brokeback Mountain to Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal has starred in so many beloved movies across his career and has earned himself a reputation as a real stand-up dude into the bargain.

That’s why it’s so shocking that we’re hearing he was allegedly acting very un-Jake Gyllenhaal-like on the set of cancelled movie Suddenly. Back in June 2021, Gyllenhaal was cast alongside Vanessa Kirby in the U.S/European thriller from director Thomas Bidegain, about a couple trapped on an inhospitable island. In December 2023, the movie finally released in Bidegain’s native , with an all-European cast. So what happened to the original version? According to the director, it’s all Gyllenhaal’s fault.

What happened to the movie Suddenly starring Jake Gyllenhaal?

In an eye-opening interview with French site Technikart, Bidegain paints an alarming picture of Gyllenhaal’s allegedly erratic behavior on set. He claims the star’s bewildering mood shifts caused the production to blow through $30 million in just four days, ultimately resulting in its swift closure and eventual rebirth away from Hollywood.

For starters, it seems Gyllenhaal and Bidegain were at loggerheads over the creative direction of the film, with the leading man apparently advocating for just not a script rewrite but a full re-conceptualization of the story just eight weeks before filming was due to begin, even though sets were already being built. OK, so creative differences, nothing new there. But it’s when shooting kicked off in Iceland that things supposedly got really weird…

Alarm bells were rung for Bidegain when the actor apparently performed the first reading rehearsal with a faux-French accent that he compares to Looney Tunes skunk Pepe Le Pew. The director alleges that Gyllenhaal would frequently yell at him, often over bizarre demands — at one stage, the star is said to have requested that he get to drive a car that was “neither red nor white.” His own off-the-cuff pitches for scenes were met with confused reactions from the crew. “For a scene on a boat, [Gyllenhaal] sells us the idea that he slaps a fish,” Bidegain recalled.

The strangest revelation from the filmmaker’s stroll down memory lane recalls the time when Gyllenhaal is said to have to stripped down to his underwear and dived into the ice-cold Icelandic ocean. “When I see the sea, I swim in the sea,” is what the actor told Bidegain by way of explanation. Technikart’s report includes a set photo which seems to capture Gyllenhaal post-plunge.

On the fourth day, the bad atmosphere on set reached a peak when a germophobic Gyllenhaal supposedly ordered that set builders had to sleep in their cars instead of in the cast and crew’s hotel to avoid a COVID outbreak. At the end of the day, Bidegain was forced to phone up producer Alain Attal and make a “heartbreaking” pronouncement. “Our visions diverge too much,” he told him. “We won’t be able to shoot in September… It’s all over, and the €26 million is gone!”

Kirby, for her part, was apparently loyal to her co-star. The director alleges that, weeks after the meltdown in Iceland, the Napoleon actress reached out to Bidegain and Attal in an attempt to buy the rights to the script so she and Gyllenhaal could make the movie with another director. Naturally, Bidegain turned down the offer and went on to rewrite his screenplay in French, retitling it Soudain Seuls, and cast Gilles Lellouche and Melanie Laurent in the lead roles.

The Iceland incident didn’t dent Gyllenhaal’s career in any way, however, as he’s set to star in Prime Video’s incoming Road House remake — I mean, that’s also caused controversy due to its director’s remarks, but not because of Gyllenhaal this time. Thankfully, that movie didn’t film near any open bodies of water.

UPDATE Feb. 1, 2024: StudioCanal reached out to We Got This Covered with the following statement in response to the Suddenly situation:

“Creative differences are very normal, if unfortunate, regularities in film development,” said a spokesperson for StudioCanal. “In this case, there were concerns which simply could not be overcome despite great efforts on both sides. We greatly value all our relationships at STUDIOCANAL and are happy that Thomas Bidegain was able to fulfill his vision on the French language version of SUDDENLY. We remain deeply committed to our working partnerships with both Thomas Bidegain and Jake Gyllenhaal, with whom we have always enjoyed a very strong creative relationship.”