Scott Beck and Bryan Woods not only make movies and love movies, they’ve produced a new stylish home that they hope will become a cinematic paradise.
The Last Picture House, a boutique cinema and cocktail lounge in downtown Davenport, launched its soft opening Monday and will have a grand opening Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, details forthcoming.
The 39-year-old Bettendorf natives and prolific filmmaking partners spoke to Our Quad Cites News on Wednesday about their new two-screen theater at 325 E. 2nd St., next to Bechtel Park.
“We love movies so much and the love of movies is so infectious, that we’re trying to spread the love,” Woods said. “This community, the Quad Cities, is a movie town. Every time you drive by the multiplex, the parking lot’s always full and we felt there was space for a new theater in town.
Beck & Woods and their partners also wanted to make a comfortable, sociable home for the QC community.
In addition to the two theaters (called studios), of 150 seats (including balcony) and 48 seats, there’s a spacious cocktail lounge on the ground floor where people can enjoy food and drinks without seeing a movie. From April to October, a rooftop bar will open with its own giant screen to watch other films.
Woods said they aim to present a wide variety of movies (as they are now), including the new big blockbuster “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” with classic films like “The Last Picture Show” and “Last Action Hero.”
“It’ll be big first-run films, plus cool independent films that the multiplex isn’t showing,” he said.
The filmmakers’ wives — Christy Beck and Julia Glausi — have been vital partners in the planning and design of the project, as well as Pete Stopulos and Jens Baker, Scott Beck said.
“Pete’s grandfather Jim used to run movie theaters all over the Quad-City area decades ago, so it runs in his blood,” he said.
Featuring state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos surround sound, laser and 35mm projection, and balcony seating, The Last Picture House harkens back to classic movie palaces of yesteryear.
“We’re thrilled to bring a theater to downtown Davenport that is inspired by our favorite cinemas around the world,” Woods said. “The ownership team — also including Pete Stopulos, Jens Baker, Julia Glausi and Christy Beck — has spent years orchestrating a creative space to host special industry guests, showcase movie art and props, enjoy rooftop screenings along the Mississippi, and curate unique events that guests would usually only experience in global entertainment meccas.”
“Bryan Woods and I have always dreamed of opening a world-class movie theater in our hometown. We’ve designed The Last Picture House to be a cinematic oasis in the Midwest that caters to cinephiles, casual-goers, and families alike,” Scott Beck said.
“This is beyond a passion project for me,” said Pete Stopulos. “It’s a tribute to my grandfather, Jim Stopulos, who created unique cinematic experiences in the Quad Cities area for nearly 25 years.”
“All of the connections felt so serendipitous,” Christy Beck said Wednesday at the theater, noting Sean Moeller (owner of Raccoon Motel down the street) referred them to Stopulos and Baker, to renovate this building, and they found general contractor Twin Shores Construction, which is based in East Moline.
“When you go to bigger box movie experiences, after the movie with your friends, you want to talk about it, right?” she said. “Some of those other theaters, you just feel like, where do we go? Are we going to your house or go to this bar?”
“We wanted to create that area all in one building — where you can see the movie, come out and talk about it, share a drink with your friends,” Christy said. “Eat, drink, and be merry.”
Over nearly 20 years, Twin Shores has completed more than 130 movie theater projects across 32 states. The Last Picture House is its first one in the Quad Cities.
Beck and Woods are best known as the writers and creators of “A Quiet Place” (2018), starring Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, which was made for $17 million and grossed over $340 million worldwide.
Beck and Woods’ other credits include writing and directing Sony Pictures’ “65” (starring Adam Driver which was released worldwide and later debuted as the #1 film on Netflix); the acclaimed thriller “Haunt,” writing and producing the Stephen King adaptation of “The Boogeyman” for 20th Century Studios, and writing, directing, and producing the upcoming horror film “Heretic” for A24, starring Hugh Grant.
In addition to showing the new first-run film “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” plus the 1971 Peter Bogdanovich classic “The Last Picture Show,” the new Davenport theater is showing a series of flicks all with “Last” in the title (including “The Last Detail” and “he Last Black Man in San Francisco”).
Other popular favorites coming soon include:
- “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” on Nov. 22, 23, and 24
- “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” on Nov. 25, 26 and 28.
Partnering with others
The Last Picture House hopes to partner with other local organizations — like Alternating Currents and Truth First Film Alliance — to show lesser-known films, documentaries and home-grown films, Scott Beck said.
He said one of the exciting things is to show people undiscovered classics, or new indie films people have not seen.
“With our connections to the film business and distributors, we’re hoping to pull movies here earlier and be like the hub of pre-screening,” Woods said. “Maybe we could get movies two weeks before they’re out nationally; that would be the goal.”
Beck dreams of possibly creating a new QC film festival, as other Iowa cities (like Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Burlington) have.
“Having a film festival here is certainly something we’d be excited to figure out because it would encourage people around the area making movies to continue doing it, and have that same experience doing it that we did,” he said.
The rooftop bar likely will host movies every weekend in the warmer months, with classic films, Beck said.
“To us, what is so sacred about the moviegoing experience — what you lose by streaming things at home — is, movies play totally differently when you’re watching them with an audience,” he said. “Sometimes, you need to be sitting there to realize that. We’re hoping that is the mantra people take into account.”
Woods wants to host Q&As with filmmakers, including bringing guests in from New York and Hollywood.
“When we meet filmmakers we admire, we kind of elbow them and say, ‘You gotta come to The Last Picture House’, and they’re always like, ‘Please have me’,” he said. “The response has been amazing from other filmmakers and actors. We’re hoping to bring in amazing guests.”
Beck also would like to do series highlighting documentaries, including Moline-based Fourth Wall Films.
“It’s so surreal, it feels coming full circle,” Woods said. Where this movie theater is in downtown Davenport, that’s where we dreamed one day, what if we could make movies and open a theater here, how cool would that be? We’re pinching ourselves, we feel so lucky.
“This community, the Quad Cities, has always supported us. We couldn’t have done any of this on our own,” he said. “This project, we have really felt the love locally, people supporting it. We hope people will come out and love the space. We think it’s a really special place, for movie lovers and just people who want to do something cool in the Quad Cities.”
What’s on the menu?
In addition to its extensive beverage offerings of mixed drinks, wine and beer, the theater menu will include gourmet hot dogs, chicken wings, pretzels and pizza (to come), as well as traditional concessions like popcorn and candy.
“The cocktails are all movie-themed and that’s going to be an ever-changing menu,” Beck said. “We may have a special screening on a Saturday night, and you can only get a cocktail that corresponds to that screening. It’s like hand-crafted, so we want to be nimble and fly in an idea that excites us and put that on the menu as we want to.”
One of his favorites is a “Men in Black” Manhattan.
Woods said that after working with Adam Driver on their last movie, they’re excited to show the Ridley Scott film, “The Last Duel” (2021), co-starring Driver, Matt Damon and Jodie Comer.
“Not a lot of people got a chance to see it, and it’s a big, great cinematic experience,” Woods said. “It deserves to be seen in a big theater. And if you see it on our big screen, in Dolby Atmos, it’s an amazing experience that not everybody got to have.”
He hopes to showcase Iowa-based films, like the new “Knee High,” shot by fellow Bettendorf High alum and cinematographer Bruce Bales (which will premiere Dec. 10 in Des Moines).
“We were lucky when we were growing up that various theaters, like the Putnam IMAX, they were always kind enough to put our work up, so a big part of this project is hopefully paying it forward,” Woods said.
On Dec. 15, Last Picture House will host the Found Footage Festival, where two comedians perform after finding weird, obscure, hilarious VHS tapes around the country.
“We’ve seen it in multiple cities, including Quentin Tarantino’s theater in L.A., and we’re bringing here to the Quad Cities,” Beck said.
Found Footage Festival is a celebration of the videos that time forgot, dredged up in dusty thrift stores and estate sales throughout North America. Childhood friends Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show) take audiences on a guided tour of their latest and greatest VHS finds, providing commentary and where-are-they-now updates on the people in these videotaped obscurities.
The Last Picture House has a film fan rewards program, and an Autograph Club membership. The latter (for $10 a month) gets you:
- Inclusion in member-only events
- Early access to exclusive events and screenings
- 10% off concessions (not including alcoholic beverages)
- 50% movie ticket voucher monthly
- Birthday gift
- Member Mondays (discounted Monday tickets)
- Automatically enrolled in Film Fan Rewards
Displays of film memorabilia, props and costumes will be added, as well as a lobby chandelier, in the coming weeks.
New film with Hugh Grant
Beck & Woods’ latest film is the horror film “Heretic,” starring Hugh Grant, distributed by A24, which Woods called their favorite film studio now. It’s a first time with them, and may be released sometime in 2024 at the earliest.
“It’s an honor to partner with them,” Woods said. “When we wrote ‘A Quiet Place,’ we felt ‘A Quiet Place’ was an A24 movie and apparently, they did as well. They told us that was the one project that got away. We’re finally collaborating with them for the first time, we just love them so much. Every movie they put out tends to be our favorite movie of the year. We’re just lucky to make it.”
Earlier this year, the indie darlings A24 became the first studio in history to sweep the top six Academy Awards — best picture, director and all four acting prizes — in a single year. The studio’s stunning Oscar haul – including “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Brendan Fraser’s win for “The Whale,” “owes a lot to the appeal of its actors, and to the deft deployment of their charm at screenings, events and on social media, according to a March 2023 Hollywood Reporter piece.
On 2023 Oscar night, A24 won nine trophies in all — out of 18 nominations. Its most recent films include “Priscilla,” Dream Scenario” and “Stop Making Sense.”
Beck & Woods could not say any more about “Heretic” (whose plot is under wraps) since they love to keep things secret, with an air of mystery, Woods said. “We’re really proud of it and can’t wait to share it with people.”
More information regarding showtimes, operating hours, special events, rentals at The Last Picture House can be found at its website HERE.
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