The Netflix Rolling Roadshow

June 8, 2006 3:25 PM

The Netflix Rolling Roadshow, "Imagine watching 'Jaws' from a raft in the ocean just off the Martha's Vineyard beach where it was filmed . . . or watching 'Escape from Alcatraz' in the cell block where Frank Morris, played by Clint Eastwood, was locked up...This August, the Netflix Rolling Roadshow celebrates classic American movies by screening them at the locations they made famous. Each screening is an interactive special event (think scavenger hunts, road rallies, a high school prom, even spending the night on Alcatraz Island). Some screenings will also include cast reunions and question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers." My favorite: Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. That is going to be a surreal experience.
posted by JPowers (38 comments total)

And no, I have nothing to do with Netflix, other than being a subscriber. This isn't viral marketing. I thought this was sweet ass sweet, and I think a lot of other MeFites will too.
posted by JPowers at 3:28 PM on June 8, 2006

omg i want to see this
posted by nola at 3:37 PM on June 8, 2006

sweet ass sweet is goddamn right. See you mother bitches up in Estes Park, yo.
posted by boo_radley at 3:40 PM on June 8, 2006

Um, why would you go to the Stanley Hotel, when it's the Timberline Lodge in Oregon that was the basis of all exterior shots, and all interior shots were done in a soundstage in london.
posted by nomisxid at 3:47 PM on June 8, 2006

Ah, I see now, it was used in the remade-for-tv-miniseries. Which just makes it all the more silly that they're going there to show the Kubrick original.
posted by nomisxid at 3:49 PM on June 8, 2006

Stella Artois did something like this in conjunction with Channel 4 in the UK about 6 years ago.
posted by fire&wings at 3:50 PM on June 8, 2006

maybe the will play "thunder road" over in east tennessee or "the evil dead" filmed in morristown. but probably not :(
posted by nola at 3:51 PM on June 8, 2006

They're serving Pepsi Blue along with the popcorn, I take it?
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:52 PM on June 8, 2006

I think the hotel was the inspiration for King's book. Anyway I am so going, even though I get the feeling it is going to be mobbed.
posted by carter at 3:52 PM on June 8, 2006

You know, I was going to say "this is bullshit, the Alamo Drafthouse has been doing its own Rolling Roadshow for years".

Then I saw that, apparently, it's the Alamo that is handling this.
posted by adamrice at 3:53 PM on June 8, 2006

Are they doing one for Alien? I'll go.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 3:54 PM on June 8, 2006

The Alamo Drafthouse is awesome. Lowering down a projector so you can watch The Goonies in a cave? Effing genius.
posted by unknowncommand at 3:55 PM on June 8, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

'Slackers' in Austin would have been fun ... A Blues Brothers concert in Chicago ...
posted by carter at 3:56 PM on June 8, 2006

good going, birdherder. :|
posted by boo_radley at 4:07 PM on June 8, 2006

This sounds really cool.
posted by graventy at 4:12 PM on June 8, 2006

This is not Netflix's show. It's the Drafthouse and specifically Tim League's. He needed their money if he was going to do it the way he wanted it this time (last year's national tour had a few incidents because they didn't have a scouting budget), but Netflix been taking some liberties with their sponsorship. They also can't market it as the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow because League sold the name along with his franchise rights so he could focus on movies rather than expansion. The League's own the three Austin locations and the name there, but have nothing to do with the franchise corporation and aren't allowed to market as the Drafthouse anywhere else. Then again, I doubt Tim cares much about the credit. These shows are guaranteed to be spectacular and will all likely feature some elaborate promotion. I know there will be street hockey at the Clerks screening.
posted by mosessmith at 4:18 PM on June 8, 2006

Viral marketing is by definition unintentional. Not that it matters, but this is a good example.
posted by stbalbach at 4:23 PM on June 8, 2006

Why so few movies? More, more! How about showing Office Space here, at the Initech HQ?
posted by emelenjr at 4:23 PM on June 8, 2006

thanks boo.
posted by birdherder at 4:32 PM on June 8, 2006

How will they show "The Black Hole"?
posted by stinkycheese at 4:55 PM on June 8, 2006

The Alamo Drafthouse is unequivocably the best thing about Austin. Don't let the visitors' bureau tell you its the live music.
posted by lunalaguna at 4:58 PM on June 8, 2006

Okay, this is really weird.

I'm looking forward to Jaws playing in my hometown next weekend, I check the listings for a theatre in the city I moved to and found out Jaws played last weekend, and then immediately after that I come here and see this.

I imagine a print of Jaws is touring. Still. That's creepy.
posted by Brainy at 5:10 PM on June 8, 2006

Are they doing one for Alien? I'll go.

And then I see this! Alien was the movie I saw at that second theatre I mentioned. derail: it was an old print and the sound went out when Brett was wandering around looking for the cat. We all kinda sat there trying to wait it out when some guy just started yelling out "Jones!" himself. Almost as good as watching Ghostbusters in a sold out midnight showing. I'm totally just rambling. I'd delete this but it seems like such a waste of effort.

Ahem. Sorry.
posted by Brainy at 5:16 PM on June 8, 2006

Stephen King wrote The Shining at the Stanley, in room 217.
posted by m@ at 5:27 PM on June 8, 2006

I love the idea of watching "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" at the "Save Ferris" water tower.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 7:18 PM on June 8, 2006

If I go to the Warriors scavenger hunt in Coney Island, am I gonna have to brain any suckers with a baseball bat? Cos I'd be okay with that. Just saying.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:34 PM on June 8, 2006

They should have done Mallrats at the Eden Prairie shopping center. That would have been a blast.
posted by baphomet at 8:43 PM on June 8, 2006

I'm assuming they have to wait another year and perhaps get an even bigger sponsor than Netflix to be able to show Top Gun in Val Kilmers underpants?





this is actually a cool idea, thanks
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:00 PM on June 8, 2006

I used to watch Jaws at the theatre in Oak Bluffs that Spielberg used to screen dailies. He gave them a print, as I recall. All summer they do a midnight showing on Saturdays. (I could be mistaken about the theatre. It may have been the theatre across the street from the one photographed here.)

After that, I'd ride my bike around the whole island, since many locations were used in the film, mashed together.
posted by Busithoth at 9:51 PM on June 8, 2006

That's entirely cool.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:55 PM on June 8, 2006

Um, why would you go to the Stanley Hotel, when it's the Timberline Lodge in Oregon that was the basis of all exterior shots, and all interior shots were done in a soundstage in london.

[...]

Stephen King wrote The Shining at the Stanley, in room 217

As long as they have a nude wrinkly old lady in a bathtub, I don't care.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:19 PM on June 8, 2006

Paging Mr. Malkovich... please meet your party on Floor 7.5
posted by hal9k at 1:01 AM on June 9, 2006

I'm on a list here in St. Louis with some guys who watched The Exorcist in the bedroom where it happened!
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 4:18 AM on June 9, 2006

I'd make a road trip to Monroeville, PA for an Alamo Drafthouse-sponsored screening of "Dawn of the Dead."
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:53 AM on June 9, 2006

looks like I'm boppin' my way back to coney....
posted by SteveFlamingo at 6:36 AM on June 9, 2006

"it's the Timberline Lodge in Oregon that was the basis of all exterior shots [for The Shining], and all interior shots were done in a soundstage in london."

And you do not brightly rush in as a passing tourist to ask the manager of the Timberline's extensive lower floor gift shop to confirm what is blindingly obvious -that this huge lodge was indeed used for The Shining exterior facade location, and expect a breezy reply.

The Timberline gift shop guy made an immediate lemon face, hissed crossly it was "years ago" (true enough) and looked as though he wanted to prevent us buying any postcards.

I wanted to ask him if it was corporate policy to downplay the connection, but I hadn't the courage.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 10:54 AM on June 9, 2006