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Chicago (AP) — Roger Ebert's final blog posting last April ended with his hopeful sign-off: "I'll see you at the movies." The award-winning film critic died two days later. 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 the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, which is next to Urbana where Ebert grew up. His wife, Chaz Ebert, described the statue as "interactive art," because it shows her late husband giving his famous "thumbs up" sign and sitting between two empty theater seats where visitors can sit. "Roger, he would feel honored that someone wanted to do this for him, but he almost would feel embarrassed because he was so modest," Chaz Ebert said. "But he would be very grateful...

The cinephile community suffered a terrible loss in the spring of this year when famed critic Roger Ebert passed away. But a movie theater near his hometown in Illinois is looking to pay tribute to this giant in film criticism by creating a permanent memorial in his honor. The News Gazette (via THR) reports the town of Champaign--which is a stone's throw from his hometown of Urbana--is commissioning a life-sized bronze statue of Ebert that shows him with his trademark thumbs up. Better still, there will be an empty seat on either side of him, presumably so admirers can cozy up and get a snapshot next to this long-loved critic and TV personality. The Champaign-Urbana community is currently raising funds for the statue's construction, an effort headed by husband and wife team Scott and Donna Anderson, the latter of whom used to work as a travel agent for Ebertfest. The...