Calendar: May 5-11, 2023
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!
5/5: Chris Lukeman (“experience designer,” C-U Adventures in Time & Space escape room, Urbana, IL)
PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed
2/27: Ron Magnoli, Jr., 66 (owner/operator, Route 34 Drive-In Theater, Earlville, IL)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
This week, we give nods to a few OG collegiates who attended local institutions in the past and continue to make their mark in film. First, it turns out Illinois Wesleyan University’s student showcase is now called the Phenom Film Festival and was held at the Hansen Student Center on their Bloomington campus this past Monday, May 1. Phenom presented five class projects and had as a special guest the IWU alumnus Richard Jenkins, a respected character actor with dozens of screen credits, an Emmy award, and several Academy Award nominations to his name. And then, University of Illinois graduate Chuck Russell has been named in the trades as of late as his remake of the Eighties horror movie WITCHBOARD is now underway in Montreal. Once a genre specialist with modest hits under his belt like ERASER, THE MASK, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, Russell is slowly regaining a footprint in Hollywood after an apparent dry spell with modern programmers like last year’s Lionsgate/Saban Films release PARADISE CITY with Bruce Willis and John Travolta. Of course, we shall never forget him as “Wilson” in SHOT.
To close, we remember the Urbana native, fellow UI alum, and veteran publisher Michael Wiese, who passed away on March 11 in his adopted home of England after a long understanding – I hesitate to use the cliché “battle,” given how Wiese looked into unorthodox methods to live as fruitfully as possible – with Parkinson’s disease. A line of professional books geared towards all aspects of the film, television, and new media production process, along with spin-off seminars and virtual content, has been issued from his offices in California for nearly 50 years and a second imprint, Divine Arts Media, delves into sacred teachings and health practices from cultures he admires as explored in his lone video available on Tubi, the 2011 documentary TALKING WITH SPIRITS: JOURNEYS INTO BALINESE SPIRIT WORLDS. We truly appreciated his personal investments and our hearts go out to his wife Geraldine, daughter Julia, and the writing and editorial team at Michael Wiese Productions. May his memory live onward and upward.
CONFIDENTIAL ALMANAC | Dates in Film Culture History
30 Years Ago … Thursday, May 6, 1993: The production crew behind WITH HONORS, an upcoming collegiate drama starring Brendan Fraser, Moira Kelly, Josh Hamilton, and Patrick Dempsey, utilizes the University of Illinois Main Quad to capture a climactic moment. It is one of several location shoots across the United States that will meld together on-screen to depict the settings for the story, Harvard University and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Numerous locals fill the need for extras, sitting about the young actors in the guises of fellow students, faculty, and family members, for a graduation ceremony scene staged at the south end of the Quad with a dressed Foellinger Auditorium as an architectural backdrop. Present for the faux festivities is the celebrated writer Gore Vidal, who plays a Harvard professor and faculty advisor to Fraser’s character Monty Kessler, while the popular comedic actor Joe Pesci, appearing as a wiseacre street person with a dreamer’s soul who becomes an unofficial mentor to Monty, is nowhere to be found. Activity is scheduled to wrap by this evening although, according to News-Gazette coverage at the time, several members of the WITH HONORS team will have spent most of the week in the immediate area before their visit is through. Warner Bros. would open the Spring Creek Productions film a year later almost to the day on Friday, April 29, 1994, at slightly more than 1,000 theaters nationwide. Quad footage can be seen briefly in the accompanying music video for the movie’s hit theme song, “I’ll Remember,” performed by Madonna; WITH HONORS director Alex Keshishian previously worked on the pop star’s concert tour documentary, MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE, as well as several of her other videos. [R]
LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers
@ Spurlock Museum of World Cultures, UIUC, Urbana, IL
College of Media at Illinois presents MACS Student Showcase* (UIUC student media classwork) (5/6, 7 p.m., free)
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, LOVE AGAIN, AIR*, ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY*, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, EVIL DEAD RISE, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, POLITE SOCIETY*, PONNIYIN SELVAN: PART 2 (in Tamil), SISU, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (5/5 on), Studio Ghibli Fest: PONYO 15th anniversary (5/8, 5/10, 7 p.m., in Japanese w/English sub), ROLL WITH IT (faith film, 5/9, 5/11, 7 p.m.), BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER (5/11 on) *single shows daily
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, LOVE AGAIN, AIR, ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET., BEAU IS AFRAID, BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: THE MIRACULOUS STORY, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES, EVIL DEAD RISE, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (5/5 on), UFC 288: Aljamain Sterling vs. Henry Cejudo, more! (mixed martial arts, 5/6, 9 p.m., simulcast), Studio Ghibli Fest: PONYO 15th anniversary (5/7, 4 & 7 p.m., English dub; 5/8, 5/10, 7 p.m., in Japanese w/English sub), FOOTLOOSE (1984) (5/7, 3 & 7 p.m.; 5/10, 7 p.m.), ), ROLL WITH IT (faith film, 5/9, 5/11, 7 p.m.),
@ Redbox, Champaign-Urbana, IL
CHAMPIONS, JOHNNY & CLYDE, SUPERCELL, more! (5/2 on) Online rentals
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!
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
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (5/5-5/7)
@ The Fischer Theatre, Danville, IL
No movies this week!
@ The Harvest Moon Twin Drive-in, Gibson City, IL
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 (Screen 1), TWISTER (Screen 2) (5/4-5/7)
@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
Central Illinois Film Commission* meeting (5/6, 1 p.m.)
@ The Little Lorraine, Hoopeston, IL
Private parties and “Family Movie Packs” this week.
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL
WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? (2023) (5/5-5/7), DARK STAR (5/5), DR. NO (5/10), FROM RUSSA WITH LOVE (5/11)
@ The Onarga Theatre, Onarga, IL
ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. (5/5-5/7)
@ The Princess Theatre, Leroy, IL
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (animation) (5/5-5/7)
@ The Route 66 Drive-in Theater, Springfield, IL
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, ANT MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (Screen 1), NEFARIOUS, THE POPE’S EXORCIST (Screen 2) (5/5-5/6)
NOW PLAYING | Midwest
For detailed and curated listings of Chicago-area film presentations and related events, please visit the fine folks at Cine-File and subscribe to their definitive “Cine-List” weekly blast.
COMING SOON | Area-wide Events
5/12
HUNTING FOR THE HAG* downstate premiere
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL, 7 p.m.
5/15
Champaign Movie Makers* “Open Projector Night”
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL, 7 p.m.
8/19
DESPERATE SOULS* downstate premiere
@ The Princess Theater, LeRoy, IL, time TBD
COMMUNITY & CAMPUS SERIES | Champaign-Urbana area
“The Arthouse Experience Film Series” curated by Sanford Hess and sponsored by Illinois Public Media
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
5/31: THE TWO POPES; 6/14: MULHOLLAND DRIVE; 7/12: BARAKA
Illini Radio Group presents “Rewind 92.5 Movie Series”/“Mix 94.5 Throwback Thursdays”*
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
5/18: BEETLEJUICE; 6/29: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK; 7/27: TOP GUN
The News-Gazette Film Series
@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL, 1 & 7 p.m.
5/20: TOPPER; 6/17: ENTER THE DRAGON; 7/15: I LOVE LUCY: THE MOVIE
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Compiled by Jason Pankoke.
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