McGregor

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…

Hollywood is truly a small world. You never know which actors competed against each other to play some of the most iconic movie characters. But every time I learn something new, like that Jason Statham was wanted to play Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders instead of Cillian Murphy or that Sebastian Stan wanted the Captain America role, I’m totally flabbergasted. Now, I’m shocked once again after Road House actor Jake Gyllenhaal talked about a few movies he was being considered for with stiff competition, including The Dark…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeConor McGregor has admitted that Meryl Streep’s negative take on mixed martial arts motivated him to give his best performance in Prime Video’s forthcoming movie, Road House.In 2017, while accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes, the Devil Wears Prada actor, then 67, declared: “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if we kick them all out, you’ll…

It would be easy to dismiss a new Road House – the shoes left by a gritty, sweaty Patrick Swayze in the pulpy 1989 action film are hard ones to fill; sequels and remakes tend to tip the fine balance of good-bad that defined so many films from that period into straight-up bad. Plus, the Road House remake from The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman is (controversially) bypassing theaters and headed straight to streaming via Amazon Prime Video – by now, given the deluge of disposable content, a dubious distinction for…

Jake Gyllenhaal’s remake of Road House rode into Austin for the SXSW Film Festival on a wave of minor controversies. The film’s director, Doug Liman, took shots at Amazon Prime Video for deciding not to give the movie a proper theatrical release. It will be available to those with a Prime Video subscription beginning on March 21. That brouhaha prompted Gyllenhaal to step in and say that Amazon was alway clear in its intent to go streaming with Road House, even though he respected Liman for defending their film, and…

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor shared that he was reluctant to play Obi Wan-Kenobi in `Star Wars,` according to Variety. "It wasn`t a done deal for me. I didn`t think it was at all who I was. I believed, at that point, I was a Danny Boyle actor. `The Beach` was more important and I meant it, it wasn`t flippant. I did ask a lot of people for advice," Ewan McGregor said. "I am happy that I am this character for a lot of people, but when these films came out, they were so disliked. That was hard. The first one was panned and…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeEwan McGregor has revealed he didn’t initially want to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars franchise, admitting: “I didn’t think it was at all who I was”. The 52-year-old Scottish actor said he was set on taking a role in another project before appearing in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999. McGregor told Variety: “ wasn’t a done deal for me. I didn’t think it was at…

Imagine what it must feel like to appear in the first Star Wars film in 20 years only to realize that everyone thinks it’s the worst thing since Hitler. That’s precisely what happened to Ewan McGregor and the rest of the Phantom Menace cast in 1999. Back then, if you were a struggling actor and counted on the galaxy far, far away to be your Hail Mary pass in Hollywood, you would’ve been sorely disappointed, because that first movie was anything but well-received. We can laugh and joke and share those innumerable prequel…

Sign up to our free sport newsletter for all the latest news on everything from cycling to boxingSign up to our free sport email for all the latest newsFans have gotten their first glimpse at Conor McGregor’s acting debut, after the trailer for Amazon Prime’s Road House was released on Thursday (25 January).The remake of the 1989 action film, which starred Patrick Swayze, will be released on 21 March, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role and McGregor as an antagonist named Knox.Upon the release of the trailer,…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeEwan McGregor has admitted that he used to show his kids the traumatic toilet scene from Trainspotting “for a laugh”.The Scottish actor was 25 when he starred in Danny Boyle’s 1996 film about a group of friends living in poverty and struggling with addiction in Edinburgh.In one of the film’s most infamous scenes, Ewan’s character is forced to use “the worst toilet in Scotland” and…