Rolling Roadshow Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I feel restless, as I sit here and write this. I just finished reading the 2007 tour dates for the third annual Rolling Roadshow Tour, and I wish I could ride along in the big Alamo Drafthouse projection truck as it circles the country this summer, showing classic and cult movies in strange, cool and appropriate locales. If you've heard me or Scott Weinberg raving at length about the Alamo theaters in Austin and feel slightly envious, well, now the Alamo experience may be coming to your part of the country -- at least the outdoor-movie aspect. You might remember the tour last year as the Netflix Rolling Roadshow, but this year Alamo seems to have acquired a number of different sponsors for the event.

The idea behind the Rolling Roadshow Tour is to show movies in locations related to the film's story, or similar to the locations where the movie was shot. The above photo is from a 2005 screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. This year's lineup includes North by Northwest at Mount Rushmore and A Christmas Story at the newly restored Christmas Story House in Cleveland. There are also a lot of other special touches and related events surrounding the screenings: you must take a canoe trip to get to the Deliverance screening on the Georgia river where it was shot, and the John Waters marathon in Baltimore includes free Odorama cards for Polyester as well as barf bags. Special guests often appear at the screenings; apparently the Alamo folks are working to get the Coreys at the Lost Boys screening in Santa Cruz. The tour kicks off on July 18 with Fandango, as the Rolling Roadshow folks drive from Austin to San Elizario, Texas (near El Paso) just like the characters in the movie, and ends on August 15. The entire schedule is listed after the jump -- check to see if the inflatable screen will be set up in your neighborhood.

This month, other cities around the U.S. are getting a taste of what Austin enjoys all year long: Alamo's Rolling Roadshow outdoor movie setup, which is travelling around the country with the Netflix Rolling Roadshow tour. Austin Chronicle writer Marjorie Baumgarten has a lovely, touching essay in this week's issue about her personal experiences watching Rolling Roadshow films at Monument Valley. Meanwhile, Austin still has a great lineup of special screenings and movie events.

• The Sinus Show has picked an easy target to mock this month: Keanu Reeves on a surfboard. The Sinus guys will be adding their humorous commentary and skits to Point Break at Alamo Downtown on Friday and Saturday nights for the next three weeks.
• The Paramount's Summer Film Classics offers a variety of films this week: Bye Bye Birdie and Giant (these are not a double-feature) on Saturday and Sunday, a French gangster double-feature of Touchez Pas Au Grisbi and Classe Tous Risques on Monday and Tuesday, and Black Orpheus on Wednesday. The Paramount has new or restored prints of most of these movies.

Last month, I mentioned the upcoming national Rolling Roadshow tour, a collaboration between Netflix and Austin's own Alamo Rolling Roadshow. The mobile Rolling Roadshow projection unit will travel around the country this August, showing movies outdoors in unique spots related in some way to the film being shown. Recently, Netflix announced more details about the screenings -- for example, Kevin Smith will appear at the Clerks screening at the Quick Stop in New Jersey.

However, the real scoop on the latest confirmed appearances and events related to the screenings comes from Tim League, owner of the original Alamo Drafthouse in Austin and the Alamo Rolling Roadshow. League informed me that the Coney Island screening of The Warriors will include appearances by six of the actors playing Warriors gang members in the film. At the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, where The Shining will be shown, Rolling Roadshow will hold a 10-minute horror story writing contest with a big cash prize. And the Raising Arizona event in an Arizona state park includes a scavenger hunt, in which the grand prize is an Airstream trailer. (No word on whether Huggies will be a consolation prize.)

The real prize, to me, is living close enough to one of these outdoor screenings to attend -- admission is free for most of the films, and the screenings include guest appearances and fun contests. The Netflix Rolling Roadshow page and Alamo's Rolling Roadshow calendar are being updated regularly with news about the national tour ... possibly including a yet-to-be-confirmed special appearance at the Field of Dreams screening in Iowa.

Last summer, Alamo Drafthouse in Austin took its Rolling Roadshow mobile theater set-up around the country, pairing movies with appropriate venues. The Last Picture Show screened in Archer, Texas; Repo Man in a repo lot in Los Angeles; and Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil's Tower, Wyoming.

This year, Rolling Roadshow is pairing with Netflix for an even more impressive national tour in August. The Netflix Rolling Roadshow schedule includes The Warriors in Coney Island, Clerks near a convenience store in New Jersey, and Escape from Alcatraz ... yep, you guessed it. Cast members for some of the scheduled movies may turn up, and some activities related to the screenings are planned, such as a hockey match before Clerks. Netflix plans to post more details starting May 15.

The Rolling Roadshow outdoor events in Austin have always been inspired and fun. I wish I could spend August following the big Rolling Roadshow van (which doubles as a projection booth) from New York to San Francisco. It could be my one chance to act like a touring groupie!