Saturday Night Cinema
Featuring little-known films and blockbusters alike, Saturday Night Cinema has been entertaining KSPS audiences since 1985. Enjoy dramas, comedies, mysteries, musicals and more!
This Week's Movie
New In Town
Commentary from Movie Maverick Mike
Cold in Town
#kspscinema #MMM
As mentioned by your host, “New in Town” was partially shot in frigid Manitoba in 2008, where star Renee Zellwegger insists temperatures got below -50 C/F - really cold by any measure. We don’t know if Texas-born Zellwegger was misquoted or doesn’t understand temperature gradients, but we’re pretty sure forcing people to work outside below -50 degrees is a federal offense - on either side of the border!
Nowadays winter scenes would be filmed in The Volume, the nickname for a volumetric studio, where most everything seems to be shot lately (e.g. “Deadpool and Wolverine”): for reasons of safety, control, and cost reduction.
But directors who want more realism or veracity still drag the camera into the snow, including recent productions “The Revenant” “Snowpiercer”, “Let the Right One in” and “30 Days of Night”.
We’d like to think that shooting a romantic comedy like “New in Town” in the cold is a lot easier than other types of films; actors would be more worried about mustering intimacy and cuteness (and hurry back into the heated shed), than frozen cameras and frostbite.
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Remembering Shaun Higgins
We remember Shaun O'l Higgins, long-time member of the Community Advisory Board and Saturday Night Cinema host, who passed away unexpectedly on October 1, 2024. KSPS PBS is stronger today because of Shaun's dedication and vision. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.
Shaun Higgins
A cinema fan since childhood, Shaun first appeared as a host on Saturday Night Cinema on February 9, 2013, when he introduced the Cary Grant-Deborah Kerr classic, “An Affair to Remember”, a movie he describes as “brilliant, but not a personal favorite.”
“I take “guilty pleasure” in watching “wretched excess” box-office failures like “Heaven’s Gate”, “Ishtar’, and “Exorcist II: The Heretic.”
Higgins began using movies to train executives since 1986. He holds a B.A. in Communications from DePauw University and has served as a lecturer and adjunct faculty member at major colleges and universities throughout the United States. He spent 18 years as a newspaper reporter, editor and freelancer in Indiana, Montana, Virginia, and New York, specializing in coverage of politics, government and the economy. Currently, he is trustee of Spokane’s Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and a member of the advisory board of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media at DePauw.
Ryan Tucker
Ryan Tucker started from humble beginnings in south central Washington. He was only 8-years-old when he was given his first camera and began his journey into the celluloid. Making short films in the backyard with his younger brother, Ryan quickly discovered Dogma filmmaking (accidentally and unaware of what that even meant).
By 20, Ryan was a self-made “hundred-aire” and decided to spend a ton of money he didn't have on "film school" in California. Once he exhausted all financial options, Ryan returned home to beautiful Spokane. He is now a videographer and editor for Spokane Public Library and hosts a monthly live talk/sketch comedy show at Central Library called Lilac City Live.
Today, you can usually find him collecting vintage video formats such as VHS, Laserdisc, CED, Beta. He relives his favorite childhood movies with all five of his hilarious, sweet children and poorly explains plots to movies to his devastatingly beautiful life partner who made his real-life movie come true.
Mikayla Daniels
Mikayla Daniels is an Alaskan born and raised writer and filmmaker. She holds her MFA in TV and Screenwriting from Stephens College and her BA in film from Eastern Washington University.
In 2018 her feature script “Wingman Lost” was chosen as an Athena List Finalist and she wrote an essay that has been published in the new book “When Women Wrote Hollywood”.
Mikayla is a regular contributor to the book reviews section of “The Journal of Screenwriting” and writes TV/Movie reviews and entertainment news for Netflixlife.com. She also is regularly invited to sit on film and writing panels and to judge and screen for film festivals worldwide.
Follow Mikayla on Facebook and Twitter: @palealaskan
Mike Hoff
Mike has been writing about movies and Hollywood for over 30 years, including radio, TV, newspapers and online. He appears regularly as a movie reviewer on CTV Morning Live in Calgary, and has even appeared on CTV's Fame Factor. He's been a screenwriter, extra and lecturer throughout Alberta and Washington.
Mike's love of movies comes down to a few key moments - being allowed to stay up late as a child to watch James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" on TV, watching "Star Wars" age 12 with a HUGH bucket of popcorn, and seeing a sneak preview of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when no-one knew that it would become THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME - maybe the only time in history only 20 people were in the theatre for this film. Also, "Aliens" on a cool July day downtown, "Rear Window" at a repertoire theater, and tearing up as a young man watching "Fiddler on the Roof" at a film-club presentation in Tacoma.
You can follow Movie Maverick Mike on Instagram or Facebook
Ignite Your Saturday Nights
Celebrate Quality Cinema & Enrich Our Communities
Upcoming Movies
12/21/24 | New In Town | Mikayla |
12/28/24 | Paper Moon | Ryan |
01/04/25 | Big Eyes | Mikayla |
01/11/25 | The Brady Bunch Movie | Ryan |
01/18/25 | Genius | |
01/25/25 | Soapdish | Mikayla |
02/01/25 | Galaxy Quest | |
02/08/25 | The Odd Couple | Ryan |
02/15/25 | Spaceballs | Mikayla |