KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Road House film screenwriter Lance Hill has sued Amazon Studios for the remake of the 1989 film on copyright infringement grounds.

According to the lawsuit, Hill wrote the Road House screenplay in 1986 and transferred his rights to the film's producer United Artists the same year.

Hill, however, claimed that he had notified Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who owns United Artists, in 2021 that he was reclaiming his rights to the screenplay after the distribution company's claim expired in November 2023.

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He had also filed a petition on the matter with the US Copyright Office in 2021.

Amazon, however, allegedly ignored Hill’s copyright claims and worked around the SAG-AFTRA strike to complete the remake before United Artists’ copyright expired.

Hill also accused Amazon for using artificial intelligence (AI) to “replicate the voices” of the actors to expedite the project, which he said breached provisions in the collective bargaining agreements between several major studios and film unions.

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According to Hill’s lawsuit, the movie was only completed in January 2024 — about two months after United Artists’ copyright had expired.

Hill is currently demanding for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order to block Amazon from distributing the movie without a new license.

In response, Amazon’s spokesperson dismissed Hill’s lawsuit as “completely without merit” and denied using AI to recreate actors’ voices.

The remake, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal as an ex-UFC fighter, is slated to debut on Amazon Prime Video on March 21.