POTD: There Will Be Blood Rolling Roadshow

Last night I took a two hour trip to Bakersfield, California to see The Alamo Drafthouse's Rolling Roadshow presentation of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. The movie was filmed in Texas, but the story is very much based on the spur of Oil drilling in California in the late 1800's/early 1900's. Bakersfield is responsible for approximately 10% of the nation's domestic production of Oil. The screening was held in the outdoor section of the Kern County Museum, where Anderson came to research Blood. In fact, the oil tower seen in the movie is based on the oil tower on display at the museum. I can't tell you how cool it was to watch this modern American classic while sitting in the middle of a early 20th century American oil town recreation, and every time the oil tower appeared in the movie, it was hard not to look a bit left at the real thing.

More photos after the jump.

Before the screening, Drafthouse founder League held a Milkshake drinking contest, and the winner won a bowling pin prop from the ending of the movie. How cool is that? I didn't leave with a movie prop, but I did purchase Olly Moss' beautiful poster for the film. Can't wait to frame and hang it! All the posters for the entire film series are on sale at the events.

I met a bunch of /Film readers at the screening who told me that they learned about the Rolling Roadshow series on /Film, which made me quite happy. Some of them were even attending multiple screenings (one fan told me he traveled to San Francisco for Dirty Harry, and was at the LAX Friday screening of Jackie Brown).  They even had a VIP after-party at a local bowling alley, and set-up a cool There Will Be Blood Gowalla Trip which allowed up to 50 teams to win two tickets to the party, vip seating at the screening, and some free posters. A couple /Film readers from Fresno (Brodiemash, Bryan, Travis and Andrew) recorded their Gowalla adventure and put it on YouTube:

I want to publicly thank Tim League, The Alamo Drafthouse and Levis for making a screening series like this possible. They will be moving on to screen The Blues Brothers at the Old Joliet Prison, Robocop in Detroit's Russe;; Industrial Complex, Rocky 1-3 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, On The Waterfront at Pier A Park in Hoboken in New Jersey, and The Godfather: Part II on the roof of New Design High School overlooking the city. I personally wish I could attend the Robocop and Godfather II screenings. If you're located near any of these venues, you should definitely check it out! Hit the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow Facebook Page for more info.