Bronze Statue Of Roger Ebert To Be Unveiled

Visitors to the central Illinois theater that hosts the annual "Ebertfest" film festival he started now may feel like they saw him at the movies. A life-sized bronze statue of the longtime Chicago Sun-Times critic will be formally unveiled Thursday outside of the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, which is next to Urbana, where Ebert grew up. Anderson's husband, Scott Anderson, said a $112,500 fundraising campaign to pay for the statue is about $18,000 short, but they're confident they'll raise the money. Before his death, Ebert made a long list of movies that he would want played at his festival, and Chaz Ebert said she and festival director Nate Kohn would pick films from that list and others they think her husband would have liked when choosing the lineup each year.