Who Should Star in the ‘Road House’ Remake?

Road House is a movie with a level of cult popularity that I’ll never understand. And now, as we reported this morning, MGM and director Rob Cohen want to remake it. Whether they’re into the original’s cheesy charm or not, it’s likely that they’ll aim for a more mainstream appeal rather than another version that will go down in history as an ironically enjoyed, so bad it’s good kind of niche guilty pleasure. But if there is one thing to really love about the 1989 movie, besides the fact that it’s directed by a guy appropriately named Rowdy (Herrington), it’s Patrick Swayze. The movie and the star are sort of synonymously aligned. So who could possibly fill those boots in the redo?

As was said earlier today, Vin Diesel seems like the obvious choice. Not only did he previously work with Cohen on The Fast and the Furious and xXx, but, like the protagonist of Road House, he was once a professional bouncer. Might the actor now take his experience to the screen at the door of the Double Deuce? Or could he go with an actor he’s worked with more recently, say Josh Lucas or Matthew Fox or Brendan Fraser or, uh, Tyler Perry? 

We also might consider looking at other remakes where a character originated by Swayze has been recast. There’s Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth, who took on the part of Jed in the Red Dawn redo. He’d make a pretty good Dalton in Road House. Far less likely is Song Seung-Heon, who played Swayze’s part in a Japanese take on Ghost a couple years ago (actually, that version swapped genders, so technically actress Nanako Matsushima is the replacement). So far we still don’t know who’ll be starring in the reboots of Point Break or Dirty Dancing, but that would be too weird to cast them all with the same guy — or would it? 

There’s already an interesting connection between this and the Point Break remake, which is to be directed by Ericson Core, who was Cohen’s cinematographer on The Fast and the Furious. His only prior job at the helm is Invincible, which starred Mark Wahlberg, who’d also be a good fit for Road House, and maybe in fact the entire trio of Swayze remakes. Now we just have to hope he could do a fourth if somebody wants to bring us another try at To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. We already know he looks great in drag. 

Who would you cast in the Road House remake?

Here are some responses received so far via Twitter:

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