When the sun sets over Marion on June 3, 2005, it will be show time.
That's when one of the big screen's biggest stars will appear on what Warner Bros. is calling the world's largest drive-in theater screen - a 100-foot-wide cinema scope screen set up outdoors at the Marion Municipal Airport.
It will be Day 1 of the three-day James Dean Fest, a Hollywood-sponsored event to mark the 50th anniversary of the young actor's death.
It will be precisely 8:12 p.m.
"That is sick that I know the exact sunset time," said Steve Gerardi, owner of SG Entertainment, Indianapolis. "I already looked it up. The sunset on June 3rd and 4th will be 8:12 p.m. On June 5th it's 8:13 p.m."
Hired by Warner Bros., Sony and other festival sponsors to coordinate the event, Gerardi will be consumed by such details in the months ahead. Among the most daunting tasks he faces: Turning the airport's 6,000-foot main runway into a vendor-filled, entertainment-packed venue.
"We're just starting to do our mock layouts of everything," said Gerardi, 46, a Columbus, Ohio, native. "There's no electricity, no water. Doing this event at the airport reminds me a lot of an event I did in June 1988. I did John Mellencamp at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. That was a plot of ground with no electricity, no water. It's a similar challenge, only here I get concrete runways to set up instead of grassy fields."
At the center of the festival will be the huge movie screen, which Warner Bros. has commissioned. At 100 feet wide, it is roughly three times larger than most drive-in movie screens. For comparison, most of the movie screens at Marion's Kerasotes Theaters are 15 feet tall by 40 feet wide, said spokesman Scott Cottingham. The Jumbotron screen in Times Square, New York, is 23.5 feet tall by 32 feet wide.
"It's quite a science to this," said Brian Jamieson, vice president of special projects for Warner Bros., adding that he doesn't know the precise dimensions of the screen because manufacturers are still testing it. "They want to make sure that picture is so ... good that you can see it from a mile off."
Plans are to show Dean's three movies - Rebel Without a Cause, Giantand East of Eden- one per night, Jamieson said. The images will be digital, he said.
"When you think about a current DVD, it's about 720 horizontal lines of resolution," Jamieson said by cell phone from California. "These pictures are going to be screened in what they call the digital 2K format. That's 2,000 horizontal lines of resolution. I've seen it demonstrated on a 50- or 60-foot screen. It's just stunning."
Gerardi anticipates needing six to 10 generators at the airport to provide power for the screen, which will be anchored by water because of its size. With the city's help, he will open a James Dean Fest headquarters somewhere in downtown Marion in the next couple weeks.
"Steve is our man on the ground," Jamieson said, adding that event sponsors wanted a headquarters in Marion because planning from California is too difficult. "It will be a destination for local people to come and find out about Dean Fest. For vendors, they can find out how to get permits, all of that.
"We'll have a line of exclusive James Dean apparel sold there, as well. It'll be a one-stop shop for anything and everything you want to know about Dean Fest."
Gerardi probably will set up a community bulletin board at the headquarters to keep residents up to date about progress on planning. One thing he can't plan or prevent: Rain.
"It doesn't rain on my shows," Gerardi said, acknowledging that he's sometimes cocky. "You know what? Let me tell you something, OK? I will not go into an event worried about rain. All you can do is prepare for the show. If it rains, you deal with it."
Jamieson said organizers might commission a satellite study of the weather several weeks prior to the event. Some might also seek guidance less scientific.
Said the Warner Bros. executive: "Maybe Jimmy's up there looking down and he'll help us have good weather."
