Last I heard, the folks behind the Texas Theatre's extreme makeover still needed some $7 million to get the historic Oak Cliff movie palace completely put back together again. (Some $2 mil has been raised and spent since redo efforts began in '01, but those Cliffdwellers behind its restoration hope to eventually return it "to its historically significant state.") Which isn't to say it's not being used; far from it. Matter of fact, the Oak Cliff Foundation sends word today that beginning next week it'll start using the theater to show, ya know, movies again -- and I've long said Dallas is in desperate need of a repertory cinema, so good news.
The full schedule's here, but the first movie unspools one week from tomorrow, and it's John Carpenter's The Thing redo, which I recall not handling terribly well upon its release in '82. (I ditched out early and caught Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ... for, like, the 29th time. Not proud.) Also on the schedule: The Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, Gimme Shelter (greatest rock doc of all time), Amores Perros and a double bill that'll include Hell's Angels from 1930, which was directed by Howard Hughes -- who, matter of fact, opened the theater on Jefferson Boulevard on April 21, 1931.