Drive in for three cinema gems at showgrounds

MAGICAL: Fantasy adventure film Labyrinth, starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, will screen at the Solway Showgrounds in Masterton as one of three Drive-In Movies Wairarapa events that will be open to the public. PHOTO/FILE

Organisers of the second annual Cruise Martinborough have thrown open their popular drive-in movie to all-comers this year in an event that will launch a hat-trick of screenings, from a film based on automotive maverick Preston Tucker to a salute to late rock and roll chameleon David Bowie.

Cruise Martinborough organiser Damien Pivac said the film, American Graffiti, had been such a popular choice as a drive-in movie at the inaugural Cruise Martinborough weekend that members of the public had been keen to attend as well.

So the 2016 Cruise Martinborough Drive-In Movie screening of the 1988 movie, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, will feature a limited number of spaces for members of the public.

The biographical comedy-drama will be shown at the Martinborough Rugby Club grounds on Thursday, January 28, and will kick off the weekend Cruise Martinborough event while also preceding drive-in screenings at Solway Showgrounds in Masterton.

Preston Tucker was a visionary Detroit engineer who dreamed of building "the car of the future".

He went on to mount an ill-fated challenge to the automotive industry in the late 1940s and early 1950s with a revolutionary car concept that ultimately failed to turn any wheels at the time.

Mr Pivac said Drive-In Movies Wairarapa, courtesy of Firefly Cinemas, will also screen in the region this year the Jim Henson movie, Labyrinth, featuring David Bowie as the evil Goblin King.

The screening of the 1986 adventure fantasy film is a nod to the idolised British artist, who died on January 10 after an 18-month battle with cancer. Labyrinth will screen at the Solway Showgrounds in Masterton on March 4 from 8.15pm.

The 1978 romantic musical, Grease, starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, will light up the showgrounds the next night on March 5 and will round out the hat-trick of cinema gems, Mr Pivac said.

The March screenings will be open to allcomers and each show, including the Cruise Martinborough event, will cost $30 a vehicle no matter the number of occupants.

"So if you can fit eight people in your car, all good."

Mr Pivac said smaller vehicles will be situated closer to the screen and larger vehicles in the back rows.

-For more information go online to the Cruise Martinborough Facebook page and to www.firefly.nz.