Reel life: Get a load of Welles' at 'Worlds' radio staging
Film critic's notebook
• A radio play version of H.G. Wells' classic science fiction tale "The War of the Worlds" will be staged at the Woodstock Opera House at 7 p.m. Friday, May 15, as part of the continuing celebration of Woodstock's Orson Welles' Centennial Festival. The production is inspired by Welles' Oct. 30, 1938, radio broadcast that inadvertently shocked the nation with such realism that men volunteered to join the Army to fight invading Martians. A short doc precedes the production.
At 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 16, actor Erik Van Beuzekom delivers his one-man show "Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles" also at the Woodstock Opera House, 121 W. Van Buren, Woodstock. More events and shows are scheduled. Go to welleswoodstock.com for details.
• "Wild Tales," an anthology of revenge that earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign language feature, will be shown by the After Hours Film Society at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 18, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. This movie offers one of the greatest opening sequences ever shown on the silver screen. Just so you know. Go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com.
• It doesn't appear that 20th Century Fox has much faith in the quality of Gil Kenan's remake of Tobey Hooper's 1982 horror hit "Poltergeist." (Yes, we all know producer Steven Spielberg's fingerprints are all over that movie, but let's not quibble.) Fox has set the press screening for the remake the night before its May 22 release, way after print deadlines. Not exactly a vote of confidence. Neither is the cheesy movie poster depicting a satanic doll's face that too closely resembles Heath Ledger's Joker makeup in "The Dark Knight."
● Dann Gire's Reel Life column runs on Fridays in Time out!