Aug. 11, 2006
 
RUTHERFORD ON FILM: Galleria 14 Mega Theatre Comes to Beckley; Dani McCall-Englander Shoots 2 Films Over Summer
 
By Tony Rutherford
 
Beckley, WV (HNN) -- Curtis McCall, president of Marquee Cinemas, called the circuit’s new Beckley 14-screen megaplex a movie-goers “heaven.” The Galleria 14 in the Cranberry Creek Plaza brings stadium seating, wall-to- wall screens, expanded concession menus, rocking chair love seats, and state-of -the art projection and sound to Beckley.
 

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Similar in some ways to Pullman 16, the Galleria has a large lobby with monitors playing previews of upcoming attractions, as well as a few seats for waiting on the movie to start.
 
The exterior has a twinge of an art-deco flavor and the interior has lots of stars and each auditorium has its own star designs that extend from the floor to the ceiling.
 
Galleria 14 will feature year round afternoon matinees with tickets for the first show of the day $4.75.
 
The new cinema includes a party room for birthday parties or other celebrations.
 
The 14 auditoriums range in size from 80 to 280 seats.
 
Unfortunately, the free-standing former Showplace Cinema not far from Galleria 14 will likely be torn down and replaced by a restaurant. As for the Crossroads Cinema, McCall and the mall operators are negotiating to keep it open as a move over house or discount cinema.
 
Meanwhile, speaking of the McCalls, younger sister Dani McCall-Englander has just completed two films. She has a role in “Southern Gothic,” which was shot in Charlotte, N.C. The role came unexpectedly in what McCall-Englander called her “most insane summer ever.” Once she finished “Gothic,” she came back to Philadelphia and started work in Delaware on the film, “Jack of Clubs.”
 
Now, Dani’s back at her ‘boutique’ film distribution company in Philly, Kindred, which has three films coming soon, mostly to ‘art’ theatres. “Jailbait” and “Waltzing Anna” will go in limited release this month (“They are really too art house for Marquee,” she said, so don’t count on seeing them at a mainstream W.Va. theatre.) However, “Jailbait” has attracted interest from the Cooperative Theatre circuit which wants to bring it to some colleges and universities. For September, Kindred has “Laura Smiles,” a Tribeca Film Festival attraction that has been said to contain the most vivid portrayal ever of a woman suffering from manic depression which becomes a painful, raw and bleak “Desperate Housewives” without the humor or satire.
 
Incidentally, for those unfamiliar with the McCall family, Curtis, Brian and Dani entered the entertainment industry when then CBD Theatres opened a theatre in Rainelle, W.Va. Brian, by the way, operates All Star Cinemas, whose West Virginia location is Hurricane’s Teays Valley 10, as well as multiplexes in Virginia and North Carolina.