Calendar: July 9-15, 2021
Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.
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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!
7/9: Jessie Seitz (special make-up effects artist, JAKOB’S WIFE, RLJE Films, Woodland Hills, CA)
7/12: Michael Wiese (president, Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, CA)
7/14: Griffin Hammond (senior video creative, The Recount, New York, NY)
7/15: Jill Van Voorst (owner, LIX, Savoy, IL)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
In recent months, I’ve seen mention of numerous people and things in the press, social media, and other weird corners of our world that call back to MICRO-FILM, so here be three of the most current sightings! News broke on Deadline this past Wednesday, July 7, that Sony Pictures Television is developing an animated show based on Faust, the adult horror-superhero comic from the Eighties created by Tim Vigil and David Quinn. The project’s screenwriter is Matteo Pizzolo, a veteran producer of punk and alternative content who started out with the anarchistic New York indie THREAT that we spotlighted in MF 3, while a prior Faust adaptation, the live-action feature FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED, figured in a comics-to-screen article we published in MF 4. And then, we rewind to Friday, June 25, when the analog lovers at Lunchmeat VHS announced via Facebook they were offering a short run of collector’s items to celebrate the 35th anniversary of HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT, the seminal underground documentary short by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn that we covered in MF 6; while t-shirts remain, the snappy hand-decorated cassettes are already sold out. Not sold out are the mass-produced DVDs and Blu-ray discs sitting in the storehouses of media merchants everywhere and, at times, it pays to look at their listings a bit carefully. I received my first Oldies.com mail-order catalog the other day and, despite the company’s handle, there is a good amount of contemporary non-Hollywood material in their inventory. It includes former CUBlog contributor Tyler Tharpe’s second film, RETURN IN RED, which sports a blink-and-you’ll-miss-me cameo and appears in MF 6 and 7. Only costs $3.98 plus shipping! (Except that it’s out of stock when you look at the online product page. Ugh. Stop playing me, print!) While you’re spending freely, dearest revitalized consumers, you should consider making a run on the MF run while I still have some.
CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History
30 Years Ago … July 1-15, 1991: Location shooting for the big-screen biography of legendary baseball player George “Babe” Ruth, aptly titled THE BABE, takes place at Danville Stadium on the south end of Danville, IL. Led by director Arthur Hiller, the production crew redresses the home of the Danville Dans club to alternately resemble Fenway Park of Boston and the defunct Forbes Field of Pittsburgh for scenes in the film; some shots are eventually augmented with early CGI effects to extend the upper decks and fill the stands not populated with flesh-and-blood extras recruited from the immediate area. Hollywood actors who are on hand to perform include Bruce Boxleitner, Kelly McGillis, and star John Goodman. Universal Pictures would release THE BABE on Friday, April 17, 1992, to more than 1,500 screens in North America. News-Gazette article [R]
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
BLACK WIDOW, THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, CRUELLA, F9: THE FAST SAGA, THE FOREVER PURGE, THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD, PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY, A QUIET PLACE PART II, SUMMER OF SOUL, ZOLA (7/9 on), ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS (7/15 on)
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BLACK WIDOW, THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, CRUELLA, F9: THE FAST SAGA, THE FOREVER PURGE, THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD, IN THE HEIGHTS, PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY, A QUIET PLACE PART II, ZOLA (7/9 on), UFC 264: Dustin Poirier vs. Connor McGregor, more (7/10, 9 p.m., simulcast), Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema: Coppelia (7/11, 3 p.m., recorded), TOP GUN (7/11, 3 & 6 p.m.; 7/14, 7 p.m.), THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, DESPICABLE ME (7/13-7/15, 10 a.m.), The Metropolitan Opera: Porgy and Bess (7/14, 1 & 6:30 p.m., recorded), Fathom Events and Drum Corps International present “The DCI Celebration Countdown” (7/15, 7 p.m.)
@ Redbox, Champaign-Urbana, IL
LOCKED IN, THE NEST, more! (7/6 on) Online rentals
Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!
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NOW PLAYING | The Cities Beyond
@ AMC Classic Village Mall 6, Danville, IL
BLACK WIDOW, THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, F9: THE FAST SAGA, THE FOREVER PURGE, A QUIET PLACE PART II (7/9 on)
@ AMC Peru Mall 8, Peru, IL
Closed for remodeling.
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL
12 MIGHTY ORPHANS, THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, F9: THE FAST SAGA (7/9-7/11)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
JAWS (7/10, 7 p.m.)
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
BLACK WIDOW, RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (Screen 1), THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, F9: THE FAST SAGA (Screen 2) (7/9-7/10), BLACK WIDOW (Screen 1), AMERICAN GRAFFITI (Screen 2) (7/11), BLACK WIDOW (Screen 1), THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS (Screen 2) (7/12 on)
@ The Little Lorraine, Hoopeston, IL
Private rentals for the week.
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
FIRST DATE (7/9-7/11)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
Closed for the week.
BACK OPEN! @ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS (7/9-7/11)
@ Route 34 Drive-in, Earlville, IL
THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, F9: THE FAST SAGA (7/9-7/11)
@ Route 66 Twin Drive-in, Springfield, IL
BLACK WIDOW, CRUELLA (Screen 1), THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, THE FOREVER PURGE (Screen 2) (7/9-7/11, 7/14-7/15)
@ Roxy Cinemas, Ottawa, IL
BLACK WIDOW, CRUELLA, THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, F9: THE FAST SAGA, THE FOREVER PURGE, THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD, PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY (7/9 on)
@ Streator Eagle 6, Streator, IL
BLACK WIDOW, THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS, F9: THE FAST SAGA, THE FOREVER PURGE, THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD (7/9 on), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (7/10, 7/13-7/14, 10 a.m.)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
For detailed and curated listings of Chicago-area film presentations and related events, as well as cancellations and postponements due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, please visit the fine folks at Cine-File and subscribe to their definitive “Cine-List” weekly blast.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
9/8-9/11
22nd Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
10/22-10/23
Dark History and Horror Convention’s Screaming Mad Film Festival 2.1
@ I Hotel and Conference Center, UIUC, Champaign, IL
COMMUNITY & CAMPUS SERIES | Champaign-Urbana area
Illini Union Board Presents “Summer Quad Film Series”
@ Anniversary Plaza, Main Quad, UIUC, Urbana, IL, 9 p.m., free
8/5: GODZILLA VS. KONG
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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