‘The Basket’ Shoots… Will It Score?

At long last, “The Basket” is going national.

This Peter Coyote-Karen Allen family film established itself eight months ago as a regional hit in the Inland Northwest and in Colorado, but on May 5 it will “go wide,” as they say in Hollywood.

The locally filmed movie will open on more than 100 screens in 30 cities. Those include the two biggest markets in the United States — three screens in New York City and 18 screens in Los Angeles.

The rest of the markets are scattered evenly over the rest of the country, in places ranging from Miami to Yakima. More screens will be added May 12, May 19 and beyond, depending on how well the movie fares.

National media coverage and reviews will be critical to its success, for the simple reason that people will not spend money on a movie they’ve never heard of. The distributor, Privileged Communications of Los Angeles, has been working hard on creating national awareness for the film.

The Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle are planning feature stories, according to the people at North by Northwest Entertainment in Spokane, who made the movie. They also said that Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a fan of the movie and plans to talk about it on her show next week. Entertainment Weekly included “The Basket” in its big summer movie preview issue.

Will all of this create the necessary “Basket” buzz? Spotlight will keep an eye on the box office numbers and let you know in a couple of weeks.

Hot Chicks

The Dixie Chicks sold out the Spokane Arena in six hours on April 22.

Lines were two hours long at the Arena box office. Meanwhile, the phone and online orders were sizzling, too.

This proves that these Chicks are wildly popular, as they join Elton John, Neil Diamond, George Strait and Garth Brooks as artists who can sell out the Arena in less than a day.

But they still have a long way to go before they can catch Brooks. He once sold out the Arena in 23 minutes, still a record.

A Dan shame

Why did Steely Dan cancel its May 31 show at the Spokane Arena?

The official reason, according to Tim McGrath of House of Blues Concerts, was a “scheduling conflict.”

The Spokane show was the first U.S. date after a tour of the Far East. Mssrs. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are playing in Nagoya, Japan, on May 20. The Spokane date was “one day too soon” to get all of the equipment shipped over, said McGrath. Now, the first U.S. show will be in Portland on June 1.

Steely Dan is also playing The Gorge on June 3, which probably made the Spokane date expendable.

Ticketholders for the Spokane Arena show should mail their tickets in for a refund at: G&B Select-a-Seat, Attention: Refunds, P.O. Box 3453, Spokane, WA 99220.

Verne recovering

A lot of people have been wondering why Verne Windham has been absent from his KPBX-FM morning classical music program for the last few weeks.

Windham had surgery for cancer on his tonsils on Monday in Seattle. However, the surgery went “wonderfully,” according to his KPBX-FM colleagues, and his voice was not affected.

He’ll have chemotherapy and radiation, and will be off the air for another couple of months.

We, along with many other Verne fans, send our best wishes.

Meanwhile, Marty Demarest has been filling in on the morning show.

Albom in the evening

KXLY-AM (920) has revamped its evening lineup. “The Rick Emerson Show,” syndicated out of Portland, is gone after only six months on the air. Few people listened, according to the station, and those who did only called to complain. Rick Emerson is actually Rick Taylor, the motormouth talk host who began his career on KJRB-AM with what he calls “broadcast irritainment.”

His replacement will be a major step up in class: “The Mitch Albom Show.” Albom is the author of “Tuesdays with Morrie” and one of the best sportswriters alive. His syndicated daily talk show (not limited to sports) is gaining fans all around the country.

Albom will air from 7 to 9 p.m. weekdays. “Larry King Live” (the radio version of the CNN show) will return from 9 to 10 p.m. “The Clark Howard Show,” a consumer-oriented talk show, will begin at 10.

Final `Fantasia’

Today is the last day of “Fantasia 2000” at the Riverfront Park IMAX Theatre, and a wildly successful run it has been.

More than 42,400 people had already attended the four-month run through mid-week.

“That’s more than we normally get for the whole year,” said Dusty Kraner, the theater’s lead projectionist.

The box office gross has been excellent, too. They hoped to pull in $250,000, but the total is already up to $309,000, which doesn’t even count the final weekend’s rush.

And there will probably be a rush. Late-night shows were added Friday and Saturday to handle the extra demand.

Today’s shows will be at noon, 1:45, 3:30 and 5:15 p.m. The 7 p.m. show is already sold out.

Next up at the IMAX: “Michael Jordan To the Max” and “Dolphins,” both of which open on Friday.

North Idaho opera?

Some people in Coeur d’Alene and North Idaho are organizing to bring opera to the panhandle.

This group, called Opera Plus!, wants to encourage regional opera and opera-related events. For instance, they are planning an evening cruise titled “Opera on the Lake” on Aug. 7.

If this sounds like a good idea to you, call them at (208) 664-2827 or go to the first business meeting, Wednesday, 5 p.m., Spokesman-Review Building, 608 Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene.