The Southland red carpet premiere for Pork Pie, the re-make of the classic Kiwi film, will now take place at Reading Cinemas in Invercargill, City Council Chief Executive, Richard King announced today.

The premiere on Wednesday 1 February at 7pm was originally scheduled to take place at Invercargill’s Civic Theatre, but a nationwide advanced screening of the movie the same night meant the Council made the decision to transfer the premiere to the Reading Cinemas complex in Invercargill.

Mr King said the decision to change venues wasn’t taken lightly but it was the practical thing to do.

“There are significant costs to install projection gear in the Civic Theatre. Once we learned that the film would be shown in Invercargill that same night, the prudent decision was to change to a venue that already had that projection equipment built-in.”

The Council had arranged with Reading Cinemas to hire the entire cinema complex.

“We are still planning a red carpet event.  There will be pre-screening entertainment, with a band and a local pie-eating competition, with Invercargill’s Fat Bastard Pies, in Wachner Place from 5pm.  The winner of the pie eating competition will win two tickets to the premiere screening at 7pm.

“The red carpet will stretch from the corner of Esk Street, down to Reading Cinemas, where people can watch the cast, crew and VIPs make their entrance to the venue,” he said.

People who have already bought tickets to the event at the Civic Theatre will be contacted by Theatre staff and a full refund provided. These people will also have first refusal on tickets to the premiere at Reading Cinemas.

Tickets to the red carpet premiere at Reading Cinemas will cost $25 and are available exclusively at the ICC ticket office.

People also have the opportunity to purchase tickets to join the cast and crew for a breakfast celebration at Bill Richardson Transport World the next morning.