the importance of picking a fight you'll never win

the problem with New York City when it's

raining is that I can't ride my

skateboard or a bicycle so

taxi how you doing I'm F I'm going to uh

55th between 9th and

[Music]

10th

okay thank you sir than

byebye I think in

uh 24 years 24 years of living in New

York City I've never had a cab driver

look at pictures of naked women while

giving me a ride before but that is that

is not what this video is about Doug

Lyman says he's boycotting South by

Southwest premiere of his Jake Jill Hall

film Roadhouse to protest Amazon MGM

bypassing theaters for Prime streaming

release okay so what this is about is

this big Hollywood director the guy that

directed like the born identity and Mr

and Mrs Smith and like a dozen other big

movies like Tom Cruz movies he made this

great movie called Roadhouse with Jake

Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor and

apparently like Amazon Prime that paid

for the movie is like totally scream

over because they're refusing to put the

movie into theaters or something like

that facts I signed up to make a

theatrical motion picture for MGM Amazon

bought MGM Amazon said if I make a great

film we'll see what happens I made a

great film okay when I read something

like this two things occur to me number

one this is why I love YouTube and the

second thing I always wonder about is

like what actually is going on here what

actually happened I don't

understand and I'd love some answers and

the difference here is that this big

Hollywood

director this guy I happen to know

[Music]

him

[Music]

sound what is this place Doug this is

where we mixed Roadhouse did you get my

text you were watching porn in the C no

the taxi driver was watching porn while

I was driving what happens in here walk

me through what this space is so you

know this is this is where we mix the

audio for a film that's you know

destined for the big screen as you can

see it's it's the size of a of a movie

theater because the Acoustics of a movie

theater are different than say the

Acoustics of a living room this is where

you you mix a

movie that's for TV or streaming cuz it

replicate someone's living room I see do

you always wear a cowboy hat Doug I've

never seen you in a cowboy hat in my

entire life yeah I

mean it it wasn't lost to me I was in a

uh a shop in ASP and and uh Jeff Bezos

who I don't know uh came riding in on a

horse into the store into the store with

a cowboy hat you know I'm kind of at war

with Amazon and it wasn't sort of lost

on me the the sort of scale difference

of Jeff Bezos on his huge fraking horse

in the middle of the store with his

cowboy hat

and there's always a man above you like

you know as successful as I am in the in

the film business like right right you

always have to answer to

somebody you don't have to answer to

anybody no that's why I quit but but but

uh I got my start making Independent

films where there really wasn't anybody

telling me what I couldn't do the the

irony when I started doing born identity

was that we you know which was a huge

budget movie for me compared to coming

off films like

swingers and my line producer kept

telling me all these things we couldn't

afford to do and I was like I don't

understand on Swingers we just did them

we had no money and here we have all

this money and he was like you know

swingers look like [ __ ] and we can't

afford it and I sort of laughed to

myself and I was like you know in

swingers we couldn't afford the people

that told you what you couldn't do so we

just did everything you're a bad man

you're a bad man you're a Vegas baby

Vegas what were did you have to did you

steal shots on born identity we did

steal the the the look and feel of born

identity this whole shaky camera thing

that people thought was like on purpose

was more cuz like Matt Damon and I were

like running into like Garden or and

stealing shots we didn't have

permits I need to know what went wrong I

think he snapped but he has no

memory the born

identity did you know this was up here

no you didn't know that was there I did

not know that was

there it's pretty sizable billboard Doug

it's pretty big billboard

[Music]

is this where you edit yeah do you edit

yourself or do you like are you ever

yeah like I know how

a um is this still from Roadhouse yeah

all right so what is the what is this

fight that you picked with with Amazon

okay so uh you know we made Roadhouse

for the big

screen before we start do you have

insurance what your coverage good like

you have dental oh haha is there a

hospital nearby is it like too far about

like 25 minutes I'd say ah I just

slapped you are you all right

what shot out with IMAX cameras big

stars in it like Conor

McGregor hey fellas looks like you're

having a

smacky and it's it's a party right

there's some movies that like you know

you watch alone whatever but there's

some movies that are like that are a

party like Roadhouse is a party I mean

it's like it's like great music and

great bar fights I mean there's

obviously a lot more to it but at the

heart of it it's a

party Amazon plans to invest 1 billion a

year in movies for theaters and then it

turns out Amazon never had any intention

of putting it in theaters they they want

to put it on their streaming service and

sell you know toilet paper and

toothbrushes by the way I'm not the only

filmmaker that Amazon is doing this

to there's there's a string of

filmmakers who were promised you know a

theatrical release and then their films

were dumped on on streaming important

context here is the reason why Doug and

I know each other is what 15 years ago

or something when I was making what

became my HBO series I showed it to Doug

he's one of the first people who saw it

and he was like you've got something and

it's funny cuz all these years later

after making an HBO show I was like I

don't want to be a part of this industry

at all

I just want to do YouTube or I don't

have to answer to anyone and then I read

this story about you and you have to

answer to the man and it sounds like

he's giving you the the the shaft here

they are definitely giving me the shaft

um I mean they're giving the the public

the shaft that's the

[Music]

thing Doug what why are you going to

South by South what happened to your

boycott the whole point of this video is

cuz you're boycotting your own movie why

are you going

why did you

relent you

know it's tough to do but sometimes you

just have

to acknowledge that you

lost you took on Amazon you fought for

your

movie I literally did everything in my

power to try to get this movie into

theaters and I lost so on to the next

and if this is going to be

literally the only screening where

people can buy tickets and go see the

movie I want to be there let's go to

[Music]

Texas we go I mean the reason I make

moves

movies is is to then play it in front of

an audience like it's so much freaking

work to make a movie the

payoff is when you get to show it when

it's all

done turn it up turn it what's

good I hate [ __ ]

losing I mean I really I'm not a good

loser and I have very publicly lost here

but you're excited

now look at look at that look at here

look at that bus [ __ ] Amazon Prime on

its

[Music]

way how you

[Music]

doing weird is what weird this whole

thing no cuz you know what like I love

these guys I made the movie

with no I'm trying man I'm a dad now I'm

trying to keep

up gra you

over reck me incredibly well gave me the

confidence that I that I could do

[Music]

it

yeah H welcome J

djo nicest on the market did you make it

too strong no it is a bit strong but all

good now now let's get let's hit them

now

[Applause]

yeah tonight our incredible

[Music]

director so what what's the takeaway

here I think when I first read about

this even though I know Doug when I

first read about this I was like dude

what are you complaining about you have

the greatest job in the world you get to

direct big Hollywood movies you don't

get to complain about it but then as I

talk to the guy it's

like he's right the movie belongs in

theaters I got to see in the theater

it's great in the theater he was right

and if he didn't stick up for like his

movie that him and everybody else works

so hard on nobody would have stuck up

for it and even though it probably hurt

him cuz I know Amazon was pissed they

were there they weren't happy with him

with him and all the things that he had

said I appreciated immensely that he

stuck up for his for his picture and

then I also appreciated that he had like

the sense of humor and the humility to

show up and show the support for him and

his crew and the actors and everybody

that works so hard to make that movie so

good it's a great movie I'm sorry you

have to watch it on your iPads instead

of getting to see it in a theater like I

did but it's a great movie also um I

couldn't figure out how to work this

shot into into my little video but I got

to I got to meet Conor

[Music]

McGregor