This week, a group of A-list Hollywood directors, including JJ Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, took a group photo outside of one of Los Angeles’ historic movie theaters.
This wasn’t an Oscars event. Instead, the directors were announcing they were “the new caretakers of the Village Theater in Westwood”.
The theater, known for its iconic white spire, opened in 1931 and has hosted movie premieres for decades. It was previously operated by Regency Theaters, a small chain.
Last year, the theater went up for sale. Led by Jason Reitman, the Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Up in the Air director, a group of more than 30 directors jumped in, including Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Bradley Cooper.
The group said in a statement that it wanted to preserve the theater as a cultural hub for movie lovers and use it to publicly display some of their personal collections of props and costumes.
Spielberg said he wants to help restore the theater to its “glory years as a film-going cultural institution”.
Chris Columbus, who directed the Home Alone and Harry Potter films, said he would share part of his collection of 16mm film prints. He called the theater a “cinematic miracle”.
“I’m thrilled to be collaborating with so many of my favorite directors on a space that will show what the future of film exhibition can be,” Nolan said.
The terms of the theater’s acquisition, including any purchase price, were not disclosed. The Village, also previously known as the Fox, opened in 1931 and was named a Los Angeles cultural monument in 1988.
Reitman told the Los Angeles Times he went to the theater with his father, director Ivan Reitman, as a child, and that he had also hosted several of his own premieres there, including for his 2007 film Juno. Last summer, when Reitman heard the theater was up for sale, he also heard some potential buyers wanted to transform it into a live music venue, or a retail store.
“I immediately put in a bid, and I started reaching out to directors I knew,” he told the Times. The more directors he talked to, he said, “the more I kept hearing the same thing, which was that we unknowingly had a common vision to collectively own a movie theater that could serve as a community hub for everybody who loves movies”.
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Reitman said the theater’s offerings would reflect the eclectic tastes of its “cross-generational” owners, from Nolan, whose most recent film was Oppenheimer, to Emma Seligman, whose most recent film is Bottoms, a queer high school comedy about an all-female fight club.
“We want this to be a showcase for first-run movies on one of the biggest screens in the country with the best picture and best sound. And simultaneously, a place where you can see indie film, international film, rep-house film, programmed by one of your favorite directors,” Reitman told the LA Times.
The theater’s other new owners include: Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle, Ryan Coogler, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Hannah Fidell, Alejandro González Iñárritu, James Gunn, Sian Heder, Rian Johnson, Gil Kenan, Karyn Kusama, Justin Lin, Phil Lord, David Lowery, Christopher McQuarrie, Chris Miller, Alexander Payne, Todd Phillips, Jay Roach, Seth Rogen, Emma Seligman, Brad Silberling, Emma Thomas, Denis Villeneuve, Lulu Wang and Chloé Zhao.
The Associated Press contributed reporting