UFC World Champion Conor McGregor is taking his fighting chops to the big screen. The fighter will be making his major studio acting debut in Amazon Prime’s Jake Gyllenhaal reboot of the 1980s classic Road House, reports Deadline.
In the original 1989 flick, Road House followed the level-headed Dalton (played by Patrick Swayze), an experienced bouncer who is tasked with taking on the rowdiest bar in Missouri. Amazon Prime’s modern re-imagining “follows a former UFC fighter (Gyllenhaal) who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.”
As for what McGregor’s role will be, Deadline says that their sources indicate the brawler will be playing an original character and not himself. With Gyllenhaal’s main character being a former UFC fighter, signs do point to McGregor being connected to his past, especially with his own real-life UFC experience. Maybe he’ll take on the over-the-top villain spot or like Sam Elliot’s Wade from the original film, a bouncer friend that’s brought in to provide some much needed help.
Directing the remake will be Edge Of Tomorrow’s Doug Liman, who along with Gyllenhaal, has been attached to the project for nearly a year. Anthony Bagarozzi (The Nice Guys) and Charles Mondry will be penning the script, with Joel Silver producing under Silver Pictures.
Joining McGregor and Gyllenhaal in the cast are Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad), Billy Magnussen (Made For Love), Gbemisola Ikumelo (A League Of Their Own), Lukas Gage (The White Lotus), Arturo Castro (Broad City), Travis Van Winkle (You), Hannah Love Lanier (A Black Lady Sketch Show), B.K. Cannon (Why Women Kill), Dominique Columbus (Ray Donovan), Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds), and Bob Menery.
Production on the film is set to start in the Dominican Republic this month.