Austin-based cinema-eatery Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is dedicating the new Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville, their first theater in Illinois, to iconic Chicago filmmaker John Hughes. The dedication ceremony will take place today before the theater opens to the public at the grand opening celebration on Friday, January 27th.
The private event will feature the reveal of a plaque proclaiming the theater to be the John Hughes Cinema. The late John Hughes’ son, James Hughes, will be in attendance for the event and will introduce a screening of the classic Hughes film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with Tim League, Alamo Drafthouse’s founder and executive chairman.
All six of Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville’s screens will be playing some of Hughes’ most beloved films, including: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Pretty In Pink, and Weird Science. Each of the theaters will have exclusive merchandise themed around the films for guests to keep. A custom, John-Hughes-themed drink menu will also be available, with cocktails like the ‘Save Ferris’ with Jameson Irish Whiskey and Jeppson’s Malört or the ‘Pretty & Pink’ with Tito’s Handmade Vodka . The event will also be the first reveal of the cinema’s lobby photo op recreating the iconic moment from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Cameron sends his father’s 1961 Ferrari 250GT California flying through the window.
“In 1984, I was fourteen and shared the same hairstyle, untucked Polos and braces as Anthony Michael Hall in 16 Candles. I maybe wasn’t the king of them at my school, but I was undeniably a dork,” says League. “The classic ‘80s John Hughes films hit me like a sledgehammer. For the first time, I experienced movies that truly understood my teenage experience and challenges. I am honored to be paying tribute to a revolutionary storyteller who both positively affected my life but also changed cinema forever.”
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