The honored guest walking the red carpet on opening night of the Denver Film Festival on Friday was asked a tough question – and it wasn’t even by me.
Virgil Williams, co-writer of August Wilson’s “ The Piano Lesson ,” was asked why anyone should see the highly anticipated film in theaters when it is released on Nov. 8, given that it will begin streaming on Netflix just two weeks later, on Nov. 22.
“Great question,” Williams said. (Side note: I have been saying for 30 years that whenever someone says “Great question,” what they politely really mean is, “I wasn’t expecting that question, and I need a second to think about how to answer.”)
“I have not watched movies in a crowded movie theater since COVID,” Williams said. “But I have had the opportunity to watch this movie a few times in crowded movie theaters, and it was such a great experience. … I mean, you could watch it at home. But being in a theater and watching it on a big screen with popcorn and hearing people react in real time – there’s nothing like it. It made me feel like a kid again. It made me remember why I started working so hard to make these things.”