Roll out the red carpet, Hollywood movies have returned to Selma.

This Friday the Cahaba Twin Cinema on Highway 80 will re-open after being closed for less than a month.

In mid-October the theater’s previous manager moved away from Selma, leaving the city’s only privately owned movie theater in the dark.

But it will not stay way for long.

Within weeks property owner Alston Keith, Jr. found a new manager and the projectors are ready to roll again, returning Selma’s favorite stars to the silver screen.

William Dinkins, a long-time Selma resident with over three decades of experience running movie theaters, has taken over management of the Cahaba Twin Cinema.

“I’ve been involved with theaters since 1970, so it was a natural decision,” Dinkins said.

Keith described Dinkins as a “competent and capable” manager who could bring the 35-year-old theater back to life.

“This community could have great holiday season with the new movies coming out,” Keith said. “I’m glad to have somebody local (to take over the movie theater) who cares about the community, instead of someone from California or New York.”

Dinkins, whose great-grandfather and grandfather were both presidents of Selma University, said he is going to try to provide family-orientated movies and ones that the religious community might approve of.

“I need the support and patronage of this community to keep the theater operational,” Dinkins said. “I need people to support this one with full force.”

Dinkins said he is going to offer special group discounts and Sunday discounts to patrons to bring their church bulletins to the theater.

Dinkins said he is also working on bringing movies to Selma that were released during the period the theater was closed, like the movie “Ray.”

The exact dates and times the movie theater will be open each week have not yet been established, Dinkins said, because he is waiting to see which days local residents will be interested in going to the movies.

The movie theater will officially re-open this Friday at 6 p.m. with the movies “Saw” and “Woman Thou Art Loosed.”

The movies will also play again at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

“Woman Thou Art Loosed,” is an adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes’ self-help novel, chronicling a woman’s struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.

“Saw” is a psycho-thriller about two men trapped in the lair of a serial killer.

Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for children.

“Anyone who brings this newspaper article to the theater on Friday will get $2 off their ticket price,” Dinkins said.