L.A. Readers! Arthur Hiller's NIGHTWING Takes Flight At The Nuart Friday @ Midnight!!!

Beaks here...

Yes, NIGHTWING. The Arthur Hiller-directed horror movie that mixed bats, Native American mysticism and David Warner. The one that hasn't been available on home video since the Reagan administration. The one that, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been screened publicly since the Carter administration. That NIGHTWING. This Friday (February 27th) at midnight, it's fluttering out of obscurity for a gala 30th anniversary screening at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. For the first time in decades, you're going to have a chance to see NIGHTWING on the big screen! In glorious 35mm! With stars Nick Mancuso (TICKET TO HEAVEN, UNDER SIEGE and television's STINGRAY) and Stephen Macht (THE MONSTER SQUAD, THE MOUNTAIN MEN, and, currently, GENERAL HOSPITAL)! Mancuso and Macht will hang around for a post-film Q&A and an autograph signing session - and they may yet be joined by other members of the cast and crew. Or not. Either way, you're going to get to see NIGHTWING in a theater for the first time in (possibly) thirty years. The dedicated horror geeks in Los Angeles usually snap these tickets up as soon as they go online, so click over to the Nuart's official site and buy yours now. Or wait another twenty years for the fiftieth anniversary screening. Your call. To help celebrate/promote this event, I'll be posting interviews with Mancuso, Macht and possibly a few others. This is already more publicity than NIGHTWING received when Columbia released it in 1979. Here's the official press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE STARS REUNITE FOR 30th ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF ARTHUR HILLER’S 1979 THRILLER “NIGHTWING” RARE 35MM SCREENING OF FEATURE NEVER AVAILABLE ON DVD Filmgoers will have the rare opportunity to see Arthur Hiller’s 1979 thriller “Nightwing,” which has never been available on DVD in any region, at a special 30th anniversary screening, taking place at midnight on Friday, February 27th, at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles. Stars Nick Mancuso (“Heartbreakers”) and Stephen Macht (“The Monster Squad”) will reunite for the screening, with additional stars and filmmakers to be announced shortly. Fans can expect a brief introduction, post-show Q&A, and the rare opportunity to personally meet and have mementos signed. “Nightwing” was released theatrically on June 22, 1979, but found its largest and most appreciative audience in the 80s via the newly-created HBO. Based on the best seller by acclaimed novelist Martin Cruz Smith, the film also starred David Warner (“Time After Time”) and Kathryn Harrold (“Chicago Hope”). Three-time Academy Award winner Henry Mancini composed the haunting score and the evocative cinematography was by Charles Rosher Jr. (Altman’s “3 Women”). In Northern Arizona’s Painted Desert, a colony of plague-carrying vampire bats settles in a sacred tribal canyon and begins fatally draining the blood from horses, sheep, and missionaries. Combating the vampires are tribal deputy Youngman Duran (Mancuso), tribal chairman Walker Chee (Macht), and bat-killing biologist Phillip Payne (Warner). WHAT: NIGHTWING screening with stars Nick Mancuso and Stephen Macht in-person. WHEN: Friday, February 27, 2009 at 12 midnight (one show only) WHERE: Nuart Theatre 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway, West Los Angeles, (310) 281-8223 TICKETS: $10.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and children; tickets are available at the theatre box office and online at http://www.landmarktheatres.com/tickets/