In Overture Films' new Henry Poole Is Here, star Luke Wilson returns to his Southern California hometown after learning he has a terminal disease to wait out the remainder of his days in solitude. The problem for Poole, as it turns out, is that his neighborly, unified community won't stop congregating in his backyard. So much for alone time.
Such coziness was also the theme for the after-party following Thursday night's premiere at the ArcLight, where the look and feel conjured a casual, residential barbecue. Overture's Tonya Toone oversaw the event, tapping Namevents' Natalie McAdams to help execute the production. Immediately following simultaneous screenings in theaters downstairs, guests took the elevators up to the alfresco party, entering the space through a re-creation of Poole's garage door, surrounded in the pale blue stucco that looms so large in the film.
"Tonya came to me about doing something that expressed community, so we worked with the sense of community to create a huge backyard on the roof," McAdams said. Toone added, "It's almost like a really community-centric backyard barbecue, playing on the theme of the film that your neighbors are there to help you put everything back together, literally in the case of Henry Poole."
Strings of white lights hung over the party space, and trees made for down-home, eco-conscious decor. Baked It Myself supplied mac and cheese and potato salad, plus casual desserts like Rice Krispie treats and assorted cookies. Milagro candles and bundles of red roses—items you might place at a shrine, like the one that sprung up in Poole's movie backyard—topped white picnic tables, which served as communal seating. A hodgepodge of picket fences defined and surrounded the party space for about 500, actually a fraction of the ArcLight's total rooftop event space. "We wanted to keep it simple and not too kitschy," McAdams said. "It's a fine line."
To further play up the homey theme, Overture had originally considered doing an outdoor screening, but there were too many technical challenges involved. And the ArcLight posed a significant advantage anyway: a suitable screening venue and a suitable party space within the same structure, which reduces the attrition among guests and talent who would often just as soon go home or elsewhere once they've left a screening. “It works really well [at the ArcLight] because you park in the same structure," said McAdams. "You literally push up and go up the elevator [after the movie]—it couldn't be any easier."
Toone added, "You are literally under the stars from the minute you get off the elevator, walking into Henry Poole’s world. It's great to be able to have a very intimate-feeling space in the middle of a metropolis."
