Gloves are on for Imax battle (From Bournemouth Echo)

Gloves are on for Imax battle

8:00am Friday 29th January 2010

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IT PROMISES to be a fascinating heavyweight contest between two former friends who became adversaries.

In the blue corner, Bournemouth Borough Council has weighed in with a hefty £7.5 million right hook to put the bitter memories of the Imax building behind us.

In the red corner, Sheridan has delivered what their opponents claim is a low blow by pledging to reopen the cinema rather than take their share of the £2.5 million purse offered up to subsidise existing businesses in the Waterfront complex.

But far from being left reeling by Sheridan’s remarkable haymaker on Wednesday, council deputy leader John Beesley is jabbing and jibing his way into contention and the pundits are already putting bets on the scrap going all the way.

Sheridan, says Cllr Beesley, is simply using the ruse as a negotiating tactic and that the chances of the cinema opening again in the building are slim to say the least.

But Sheridan are insistent that they’ll be ready to roll their films by Easter with the help of another operator and are certainly talking a good fight.

It’s going to be a gruelling slog that won’t be pretty to watch.

But what nobody wants is a legal bill at the end of what could be a bitter contretemps that’s as big as the screen and building around which this whole saga revolves.

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