Building on the success of last summer’s program, the Santa Barbara County Park Foundation and the Santa Barbara County Parks Department have unveiled this season’s expanded outdoor movie program.
All showings are free to the general public.
“Free Outdoor Movies with a Santa Barbara Connection” will light up the Courthouse Sunken Gardens at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday with a screening of the 1992 film Forever Young, which was shot in part in Santa Barbara County. This PG-rated, family-friendly film stars sometime local resident Jamie Lee Curtis, Mel Gibson, Elijah Wood and George Wendt in an engaging tale of a 1939 test pilot who volunteers for a cryogenic experiment and wakes up in the present day.
Two other Courthouse Sunken Gardens films star Montecito resident Jeff Bridges:
» 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3: Seabiscuit (PG-13, 2003) co-starring Chris Cooper and Tobey Maguire, which was also filmed partly in the county, based on the Laura Hillenbrandt book.
» 7 p.m. Oct. 1: the 11th anniversary showing of the classic cult film The Big Lebowski (R, 1998). This Joel Coen film also stars John Goodman and Julianne Moore.
The series takes its show on the road with two screenings in other locations:
» 7:30 p.m. Aug. 14 at Ryon Park in Lompoc: Pirates of the Caribbean III (PG-13, 2007), starring Johnny Depp. The production is co-sponsored by the city of Lompoc.
» 7 p.m. Aug. 16 at Waller Park in Santa Maria: The Rocketeer, a tale of a young test pilot who straps on a proto-type jet pack and becomes an action hero. Co-sponsored by the Friends of Waller Park on “Family Day in the Park.”
— William Boyer is the communications director for Santa Barbara County.