The first film, shown to an invited audience at the Unicorn Theatre, was Murder on the Orient Express (2017). The experts behind bringing the cinematic experience to the Unicorn were the Regal Evesham team who were all dressed the part. They even had a couple of monks. The sound and pictures were as good as any cinema. The Abingdon people who helped make this happen were Iain Littlejohn, pictured in the background in this picture,
and Friends of Abingdon Civic Society chairman Bryan Brown who gave a speech.
Here are some of the audience who enjoyed this first viewing.
For more information see https://theunicorn.ac/
Murder on the Orient Express Official Trailer 20th Century FOX from Haris Zambarloukos on Vimeo.
What a truly wonderful thing; my gratitude to all involved.
If this is what a group of well meaning locals have managed to achieve….imagine what a publicly funded body like ‘a’ council could!?
The now defunct Charter Phase ll development could so easily provide a Didcot style Cineworld – but a competitor of course. And also … enough room for an arts centre.
But hey….between OCC, The Veil, and The TC and The Highways agency….we can’t even wangle a brown tourist “Historic Market Town” sign on the A34. There’s a sign for ‘superstore’ (Tesco), there’s a sign for Millets Farm. So… someone, somewhere pulled the right strings.
This unicorn cinema really is a good thing for Abingdon, but until The Big Kidz come out to play….it’ll continue to be exactly what we need, but not on the scale the town deserves.
Whilst I applaud the effort that has gone into making this happen, when I looked it costs £10 for an adult ticket, plus a £1.50 booking fee.
Now I admit I wasn’t there, but it looks from the pictures as though the majority of people have their coats on (so I’m assuming no heating in the medieval building?), and it looks as though they are not exactly comfy plush chairs that people are sat on?
When looking at Vue Cowley or Cineworld Didcot, they charge £11.79/£11.70, but they are both fully heated, with fairly comfortable seating.
I agree with Daniel. Someone should be looking at getting the Vale to fund a “proper” leisure/arts/perfomance centre, on either Poundland site or the Charter Eyesore (now that Scottish Widows no.longer have any interest in doing anything with it!), and getting one of the big cinema chains to put a two or three screen cinema in there, along with bowling alley/laserquest or even an indoor crazy golf course. Why don’t our councillors fight for this? Take on the Vale….tell them that it’s hightime they ploughed some of the plundered Abingdon silver back INTO Abingdon, and take on Scottish Widows/Aberdeen Angus and force them to either do something with the Charter Eyesore or ship out!
There you go…I have thrown down the gauntlet to our councillors…make it happen! Think of the increased footfall in the town centre!
Such a shame it’s taken a small company and an old building to get some films shown in Abingdon frequently. It’s also unfortunate opening period too, as the ‘big 3’ in the cinema world have recently been running campaigns for their all-you-can-watch cinema passes with large food discounts etc.
Good luck to it though… in my opinion, I honestly can’t see it working well until the summer when it’s warmer in there, but that also depends on their film choices… There’s some big films coming out in the next year, and they should really target those 15 or 18 rated films and not just on family fun stuff.
And finally from me… I can’t believer not one person has mentioned the lodge hill funding is now in place and set to go forward soon.
Adiós, I’m off to have a few pre-new year tipples
your right Julian its a collection of old wooden seats and there are overhead heaters but its a very cold building to heat up . but you do have the advantage that your not going to by troubled by the popcorn munching , fizzy drink slurping hords!
Si – I don’t know when you were last in there but the seats are not wooden and haven’t been for many years! And the cinema people have provided them with cushions. I have been to the cinema twice since it opened and it has been toasty warm – but blankets are available if needed.
Unknown Element – there is info on forthcoming films on the Unicorn Cinema website – lots of good stuff coming up when they re-open after the Pantomime.