Fade to Black

Already sorely in need of more screens showing art films and independent cinema, Orange County has just lost 10 more. Edwards Park Place at Michelson Drive and Jamboree Road in Irvine shut down effective immediately. Regal Cinemas, which owns the Newport Beach-based Edwards chain, apparently received an offer it could not refuse for Park Place, which essentially became the "second-run" theater for artsy/indie/Miramaxy/Weinsteiny films after they'd concluded their turns at nearby Edwards University across from UCI in Irvine and Edwards South Coast Village in Santa Ana, across the street from South Coast Plaza. No word on what will become of the Park Place space, which is in a thriving retail center in dire need of more parking. Of course, it was apparent to us the center needed more parking only when we went to Park Place to see a movie. But there are big plans afoot for that entire section of the city, which has already become more cluttered with high-rise office towers and one of those high-scale, multi-story, apartment-home complexes. Fortunately, the freeway flyers who reside in those stucco prisons are too tired from their commutes to take in a movie once they get home.