Johnathon Schaech in “Road House 2: Last Call”.Photo:sony pictures home entertainment
sony pictures home entertainment
Fans ofPatrick Swayze’s 1989Road Houseare checking out the newJake Gyllenhaal–ledremake, but what about that sequel that came before?
Centered on Shane Tanner, son of Swayze’s since-murdered James Dalton, the movie replicates its predecessor’s story of a New Yorker taking over operations of a Southern bar and rooting out its criminal underground as a “cooler” (a.k.a. bouncer).
Schaech’s undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent Shane “tries to save his uncle’s (Will Patton) bar from a group of drug runners intent on taking over,” per asynopsis.
Schaech, along with costars Jake Busey (son of Gary Busey) as Bill “Wild Bill” Decarie and Patton, “kick action into high gear,” as theRoad House 2trailerteases. Actor and martial artist Richard Norton plays the story’s seedy antagonist Victor Cross, while Ellen Hollman kicks butt as the sultry Beau Hampton.
“Road House 2” poster.sony pictures home entertainment
The story follows Shane’s attempts to manage Louisiana bar the Black Pelican, inherited from his injured uncle, while solving his father’s murder. (Spoiler alert: Little does he know the drug runners and crime lords targeting Shane’s uncle are also responsible for the offscreen death of Dalton.)
“When I madeRoad House, it was supposed to be a remake,” Schaech, now 54, toldFilm Internationalin 2018. As with other direct-to-video creations of the time, he added, the powers that be instead “made it a sequel.”
Helming the film was director Scott Ziehl, whose filmography includes another sequel with little relation to its source material: 2004’sCruel Intentions3.
In the 1990s and 2000s, distributor Sony Pictures Home Entertainment produced several direct-to-video sequels capitalizing on familiarity with original titles. These included 2006’sHollow Man 2starring Peter Facinelli and Christian Slater, and 2005’sSingle White Female 2: The Psychostarring Kristen Miller.
Patrick Swayze poses for a “Road House” portrait circa 1989.Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty
Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty
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PerScreenRant,Road House 2wasn’t always meant to feature none of the talent from its predecessor.Miles Chapman, who co-wrote its screenplay with Schaech and Richard Chizmar, said on a 2020 episode of theBulletproof Screenwriting Podcast with Adam Ferrarithat the filmmaking team approached Swayze about “doing an Obi-Wan Kenobi in the bouncer world kind of thing” and mentoring the younger main character.
Swayze’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis came a year after the release ofRoad House 2. TheDirty Dancingstar died at age 57 in 2009.
Notably, the new Gyllenhaal-ledRoad Housepremiered on Prime Video via MGM, a distributor that apparently has no plans for a theatrical release. The onlyRoad Houseentry to compete for box office dollars was the 1989 original, which grossed an impressive $61 million against an estimated $15 million budget.
Fun fact: adapter-director Timothy Haskell created a sold-out homage to the source materialOff-Broadway in 2003.Road House: The Stage Version of the Cinema Classic That Starred Patrick Swayze, Except This One Stars Taimak from the 80’s Cult Classic “The Last Dragon” Wearing a Blonde Mullet Wigfeatured martial arts master Taimak Guarriello.
source: people.com
