(Host) The movie theater in Springfield Vermont – the official home town of cartoon hero Bart Simpson – will open its doors to another teenage icon.
Three years after a devastating fire shut it down, Springfield’s only movie theater will reopen tonight at midnight for the premiere of the final Harry Potter film.
Bill Morlock directs the Springfield Housing Authority, which acquired the building after the July 2008 fire.
(Morlock) " The person that we hired to do the management of the movie theater told us that Harry Potter is going to be the biggest hit of the summer, and that we had to get this theater open …because it was going to be such a big blockbuster. So that was our goal."
(Host) Work on the newly named Springfield Cinemas 3 isn’t all finished. The new Marquee won’t arrive for a week or so. And the building’s nine affordable apartments won’t open until later in the summer.
But "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" will premiere on the largest of the theater’s three screens, equipped with the latest 3-D technology.
Morlock says it’s been a struggle to recover from the deliberately set fire, which happened shortly after the town won a national competition to host the 2007 world premiere of the Simpsons movie.
He says the town invited Simpson creator Matt Groening to the re-opening but never heard back – typical behavior, he says, for a friend of Bart’s…
(Morlock) " Ha ha ha Once kids leave their hometown, a lot of times they don’t come back…"
(Host) The cinema will begin showing films on its other screens on Friday.