Dinner, a movie and maybe a car

Drive in for a movie, drive away with a 1964 four-door Chevy Malibu? That’s the idea behind an unusual screening of “Repo Man” in L.A.’s warehouse district Saturday.

Alamo Drafthouse, an Austin, Texas-based theater, is in the midst of its first Rolling Roadshow, a three-week, 11-film tour of the western U.S., screening movies at their original shooting sites. “Famous movies in famous locations” is how owner Tim League puts it, sounding surprisingly un-road-weary before presenting “Planet of the Apes” at Lake Powell, Ariz., on Wednesday. “Basically we’re doing it because we wanted a fun vacation and a new challenge.”

In addition, the tour may help raise the profile of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Ltd., a company that bought the Alamo name and franchising rights from founders League and his wife, Karrie. It is looking to bring the original Alamo’s quirky programming sensibility to other U.S. cities.

This weekend, the Leagues and half a dozen crew members will pull their three trucks into a fenced-in lot in downtown L.A. Though it won’t be the actual junkyard where “Repo Man” takes place, it is in the general vicinity. There they’ll set up a 20-by-40-foot inflatable screen and high-tech sound equipment to show the 1984 cult hit about a repo man (Harry Dean Stanton) and his apprentice (Emilio Estevez) in pursuit of a ’64 Malibu with a surprise in the trunk. Several members of the supporting cast are scheduled to make an appearance.

But the action in the afternoon before the screening could steal the show. At 3 p.m., a road rally will pit participants in a scavenger hunt for clues leading to the grand prize -- a ’64 Malibu that League purchased online for about $3,000.

“Originally, we were hoping to wire it just long enough to get it [to the site],” says Lars Nilsen, an Alamo programmer and creative director. “But it turned out it has less than 100,000 miles on it, and it’s in sweet condition.”

The Rolling Roadshow began last Friday in Archer City, Texas, with “The Last Picture Show” and continued with “It Came From Outer Space” in Roswell, N.M., and “Once Upon a Time in the West” in Monument Valley, Utah. Future stops include San Francisco (“Bullitt”), Devils Tower, Wyo. (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) and Claude, Texas (“Hud”).

The L.A. stop is the tour’s biggest production, designed to capture Hollywood’s attention, Nilsen says. But tonight’s screening of “North by Northwest” at an airport outside Bakersfield, near where the famous crop-dusting chase sequence was shot, should also create some buzz. After all, there’ll be real crop-dusters flying overhead.

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Rolling Roadshow

What: “Repo Man” Road Rally and screening

Where: East 3rd Street and South Santa Fe Avenue, downtown L.A.

When: Road rally, 3 p.m. Saturday, $100. Screening, 8:15 p.m. Saturday, $14 in advance, $18 at the gate.

Info: www.originalalamo.com