'Wiseguys" expected in Miami Beach on Friday

By Jose Lambiet1/10/2013

There probably haven’t been this many wise guys in South Florida since the filming of Donnie Brasco. Nearly a dozen actors known for playing mobsters are expected at Miami Beach’s Castle Hotel on Friday morning for the kickoff of an initiative to save small-town, single-screen movie theaters. Among them: The Sopranos’ Frank Vincent and Vincent Pastore, GoodFellas’ Mike Starr and Debi Mazar, Witness to the Mob’s Tom Sizemore, Carlito’s Way’s Chuck Zito and more. The crew is in on the creation of a nonprofit by reformed jewel thief and writer Walter Shaw that’ll raise money to buy digital projection equipment for small theaters that can’t afford it. “In 2013, about 3,000 small-town cinemas will shut down,” said project spokesman Glen Calder. Why? This is the year when Hollywood goes all digital and stops shipping old-style film reels to older movie theaters. Either those theaters come up with $100,000 to upgrade, says Calder, or they’ll close.