RZA & Alamo Drafthouse opening Staten Island bar; Wu-Tang doc out now (watch)
Today is the 25th anniversary of The Wu-Tang Clan‘s landmark album Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), and November 9 has been officially named Wu-Tang Clan Day in the group’s hometown borough of Staten Island. As part of that, Alamo Drafthouse announced that its Staten Island location, set to open in late 2019, will include a bar called The Flying Guillotine which will be a partnership with Wu-Tang’s RZA. Here’s the press release:
On Staten Island’s very first official Wu-Tang Clan Day and the 25th anniversary of the rap masterpiece Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA are proud to unveil plans for The Flying Guillotine, a kung fu-inspired bar concept. The Flying Guillotine is set to be located in the upcoming Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island in late 2019.
“It’s an extreme pleasure to be partnering with Alamo Drafthouse on their Staten Island location,” says RZA. “When I first visited Alamo Drafthouse in 2004, I was blown away by the food, drink, and service that accompanied a slew of cool, genre and time-crossing films. The kung fu film selection was my favorite, and the opportunity to see these classics once again on a large screen returned me back to my youth.”
Serving an extensive menu of themed cocktails, spirits, and collaboration beers created by RZA and Alamo Drafthouse’s beverage director Bill Norris, The Flying Guillotine will also include a video store offering free rentals from an exhaustive collection of titles (including martial arts classics personally approved by RZA), as well as an archive of memorabilia and posters that cover the vast span of kung fu film history. Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island will also feature monthly screenings of martial arts classics with after-parties at The Flying Guillotine.
“Bringing the coolest movie experience to ‘Shaolin’,” says RZA, “with a bar designed with the aesthetics of the Wu-Tang vibe – like the Flying Guillotine – and an extensive library of films, this location will surely be a place of many fun memories for Staten Islanders.”
Located at The Boulevard development on Hylan Boulevard, Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island will feature nine auditoriums with approximately 930 luxury recliners. Both The Flying Guillotine and Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island are slated to open in late 2019.
“Like Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn’s House of Wax, The Flying Guillotine is both a bar and a museum,” says Tim League, founder and CEO of Alamo Drafthouse. “Kung fu movies elevated the action genre in terms of choreography, production design, and story-telling. Without this influence, there is no MATRIX and there is no MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE as we know them today. We love this legacy and want to celebrate and share its rich history.”
Stay tuned for more concrete details on the Staten Island location of Alamo Drafthouse and its Flying Guillotine Bar, but you can watch a virtual video tour of The Flying Guillotine Bar, with RZA as your guide, below.
Meanwhile, The Wu-Tang Clan celebrated in a couple other ways. They just released a documentary short about the record, For The Children: 25 Years of Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), which features band members discussing the making of the LP, and other artists, like A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, and Joey Bada$$, talking about the record’s impact. The group also appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America this morning to talk about the album and to perform “Protect Ya Neck,” with Old Dirty Bastard’s son filling in for his late father. Watch that GMA performance, and the whole For the Children documentary, below.
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