Photo by shhanalogWashington’s beloved Screen on the Green outdoor film festival on the National Mall will happen this year, Dan Zak is reporting in the Washington Post.
The long-running festival was abruptly canceled last year after sponsor HBO said it could no longer afford to foot the bill on its own. But an outpouring of vocal disappointment from fans led HBO to resurrect it, securing sponsorship partners in Comcast and The Trust for the National Mall.
The fate of this year’s festival remained uncertain for similar reasons until this week. Jesse Rauch of the D.C. Film Alliance launched a preemptive campaign to save the 2010 Screen on the Green.
Comcast will once again join HBO as a major sponsor, according to the Post.
And there’s even a list of films already! There’s only four, a shorter schedule than in previous years, but for Screen on the Green’s most ardent supporters, it’s surely better than nothing.
The films will play on four consecutive Mondays on 35mm film projected on a 20-by-40-foot screen between Fourth and Seventh streets NW: Bond movie “Goldfinger” at dusk July 12, the Neil Simon adaptation “The Goodbye Girl” on July 19, the claustrophobic courtroom drama “12 Angry Men” on July 26 and the seminally violent opus “Bonnie and Clyde” on Aug. 2.
UPDATE: Here’s the official SOTG hotline number and website url, which will go live next week: 1-877-262-5866; http://www.moviefone.com/screen-on-the-green. Comcast has also announced that it will offer an expanded selection of previous Screen on the Green films to its On Demand customers during July and August. Twenty films will be available in a special “Get Local” section of Comcast’s Video-On-Demand service, including All the President’s Men, Casablanca, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Rocky, Singin’ In the Rain, The Candidate, The Philadelphia Story, Strangers On A Train, The Maltese Falcon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Superman, Viva Las Vegas and Rebel Without a Cause.
