All 440 seats at the IMAX Theatre at Navy Pier have been sold out for the Chicago International Film Festival’s July 16 Chicago premiere of “The Dark Night.”

The block of tickets Warner Bros. allotted to CIFF were sold out within hours of the May 16 announcement to CIFF members. But you can bid on originally-priced $150 ticket being offered on eBay starting at $232.

A tribute and Visionary Award presentation to “The Dark Knight’s” writer/director Christopher Nolan will precede the screening of the two-and-a-half hour movie.

The International Assn. of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) will induct Chicagoan Bob Sinise (yes, Gary’s father) into its Hall of Fame at the annual awards ceremony at Navy Pier May 17.

Sinise started Chicago’s first independent editing shop in the ?60s at a time when the entire film industry?especially commercials?was undergoing a seismic change.

His induction will follow ten category awards to winning spot entries submitted by members of AICE’s nine chapters, including one in Toronto, said local AICE chapter president Tom Duff, president of Optimus.

Leading local industry speakers combine with professors of prestigious universities to bring new thinking and global overviews to Advertising That Works, a three-day conference Oct. 27-29 at the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier.

Some 650 guests are expected at the 2nd such Chicago conference, a joint effort of the 4As Chicago Council, chaired by retired agency owner Bud Browning, in cooperation with New York-based Assn. of National Advertisers.

The opening gala Oct. 27 kicking off the conference is a reception and screening of the 2004 Cannes Lions commercials Wednesday, Oct.

Although the fall season has only just begun, Joone Studios and Zombie Army Productions are already into deep into Halloween, with Season 2: “The Days of the Living Dead,” a weekly webisode series starting Sept. 16.

Season 2 covers a “meet-the-zombies one-by-one as they transform from the house of the living to the house of the dead,” says DP Jayme Joyce, who cofounded Joone Studios last May with director Jessica Christopher.

WHAT AN UNEXPECTEDLY NICE GESTURE. In surely what’s got to be a first in the 35-year annals of Hollywood-in-Chicago entertainment production, departing director Ron Howard, stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, and the cast and crew of “The Dilemma,” placed a full page ad in the Sun-Times Friday.

The ad thanked Chicago “for a great shoot and a great time in your town!”

The ad offered “Our special thanks to ?

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? Michael Mann’s 1930s crime movie “Public Enemies,” which spent $25 million filming in Chicago and the state last year, will have various premieres, advance and special showings everywhere else except Chicago before the movie’s national July 1 opening.

Its world premiere will be the centerpiece of the Los Angeles Film Festival June 18-28.

In Wisconsin, which is already benefiting from tourism to movie locations, has at least two pre-release events planned so far.

ZIG/CHICAGO MAY ZAG with the loss of creative director Kevin Lynch come early February, when he leaves the Chicago branch of Toronto-based Zig. Two years ago Zig acquired hot creative boutique agency Hadrian’s Wall, of which Lynch was co-founder.

Lynch’s stated reason for leaving, he told the Sun-Times, was simply because he wanted a change. He said he is considering all career options in advertising and beyond.

THE SALE OF EQUIPMENT AND FIXTURES at the Avenue Edit auction earlier month “did very well,” although auctioneer Paul Finn of the Boston-based auction house could not reveal how much money was raised by the sale.

He did say, however, that 100 customers were in the house and another 100 bid via the internet. Proceeds from the auction will be used to pay Avenue Edit’s creditors.

FYI: The DGA will bestow an honorary life membership on Roger Ebert at the guild’s Jan. 31 awards dinner in L.A. ?

Business has never been better for HMS Media, the 20-year-old company that specializes in performance art video. “The economy has had so much fluctuation, but if anybody ever needs evidence that the show must go on, we’re it,” said HMS co-founder Scott Silberstein.

He estimated that by year’s end HMS will have completed jobs for 30 Broadway shows and 95 national tours.

“We never thought we’d crack the Broadway world ? word is that they have production companies out there,” Silberstein joked.

ACTOR DAVID PASQUESI’S TV SERIES, “Factory,” will bow June 29 on Spike TV, but Pasquesi may not see the premiere episode.

He is filming in Rome, in the super big-budget “Angels and Demons” from Imagine Entertainment and based on author Dan Brown’s prequel to “The DaVinci Code.”

The largely improvised “Factory” is about four guys ? Mitch Rouse, Jay Leggett, Michael Coleman and Pasquesi — who grew up together in the same small Illinois town and now work in the local factory.

THE SHOW DEPARTMENT founders/owners president Lee Faclis and vice president Jeff Facklis will host a gala, invitation-only silver anniversary party for clients, colleagues and friends Thursday night at its Fulton Street facilities.

The AV equipment and supply rental service was founded in 1983 and has grown substantially to become one of the nation’s biggest companies.

Total number of employees among The Show Department and Resolution Digital Studio divisions numbers nearly 100.

The Wachowskis’ new North Side post and special effects studio will give Chicago the Hollywood glitz it has long needed to move it into the foreground of production.

The native South Siders of “The Matrix” fame, will open a high tech facility at 5645 N. Ravenswood in what had been the Ravenswood Studio, a scenic design shop.

The Wachowskis’ new North Side post and special effects studio will give Chicago the Hollywood glitz it has long needed to move it into the foreground of production.

The Wachowskis’ new North Side post and special effects studio will give Chicago the Hollywood glitz it has long needed to move it into the foreground of production.

The native South Siders of “The Matrix” fame, will open a high tech facility at 5645 N. Ravenswood in what had been the Ravenswood Studio, a scenic design shop.

Given the Wachowskis well-known propensity for privacy, little is known about the studio operation, such as the official date of opening, staff size or whether local artists will be hired or all imported from L.A.

ELLEN DeGENERES will tape her popular daytime show here May 3, although the taping venue hasn’t been announced. Since her show airs on NBC, taping at Ch. 5’s big studio seems a natural. DeGeneres declares her Chicago show will be “big, big, big, huge It’s extra-large. It’s super-sized.”

While in Chicago, DeGeneres will headline the nearly- sold out annual black-tie Make-A-Wish Ball at Lincoln Park Zoo. Tickets are $500 each.

SCREENWRITER/DIRECTOR ZACH HELM (“Mr.

“Spy Kids'” Alexa Vega performs one of her first grownup roles in L.A.-based Windward Entertainment’s low-budget film, which shoots here March 24-28.

Windward’s Evanston-based producer, James Toland, says they are “absolutely thrilled with the reception we’re getting from Chicago” for their film, which shoots under the SAG Low Budget Agreement.

“Helix” (a working title) is a “Russian Ark”-style kidnapping story told in one 96-minute single take. Toland says this is the first time a single take movie has been made in the U.S.

CHEVY CHASE hosts an evening at Sundance for the world premiere of Phil Ranstrom’s doc, “Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell St. Urban Blues” Jan 25 at Harry O’s in Park City.

Narrated by Chicago native Joe Mantegna, “Electrified” tells how Maxwell Street’s neighborhood led to the hard driving sound of the urban blues and ultimately to rock ?n’ roll.

Ranstrom’s companion film, “Cheat You Fair,” documents the last days of Maxwell Street market. Ranstrom began both projects in 1994 shortly before the Maxwell Street market was demolished.

ACTOR MATT DILLON will portray Leonard Chess, the legendary founder of the South Side Chicago blues label Chess Records, in Sony/BMG Film’s “Cadillac Records.”

Written and directed by Darnell Martin (“Prison Song”), filming of the 1950’s story is set to begin in January in New Jersey and Chicago. Jeffrey Wright also stars.

Chess, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, scoured the South, checking out the various blues scenes and selling records from the back of his Cadillac.

DIRECTOR KEVIN SMITH of Backyard Productions of L.A. and Chicago departs from his role of directing commercials to helm a 20-minute short titled “Bubblerama” around town this week. Leigh Jones is producing.

The story is about a young woman played by actress Annie Paresse, a bohemian artist type, who reinvents herself during the process of researching an upscale life style.

“Bubblerama” will head for the festival circuit when completed.

SPINNING HUNK POWER INTO RELIEF AID, “Ocean’s Thirteen” will have a June 7 Chicago premiere to support relief efforts in war-torn Darfur. Producer Jerry Weintraub and “Ocean’s Thirteen” stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle will hit Chicago on a three-city tour — L.A. on June 5 and Las Vegas on June 6.

Vanity Fair will host the Chicago premiere. It will include the screening at AMC River East 21, followed by a glitzy party at the new Room 21 restaurant and night club due to open at 2100 S. Wabash.

HANK NEUBERGER, Chicago’s sound guru, is currently in Palm Springs where he will head a 90-member crew, including lots of Chicago guys, to produce a three day webcast of the big annual Coachella Music Festival of contemporary rock and pop music.

The festival will be captured with 18 HD cameras, with video support provided by Trio Video.

It will run on website www.at&tblueroom.com for 10 hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The following weekend, the entire crew moves to the Empire Polo Field in nearby Indio, Calif.

“THE DARK KNIGHT,” Warner Bros.’ latest “Batman” installment could be “the largest single production ever shot in Chicago,” says the CFO’s Rich Moskal.

It could add at least $30 million to the local economy.

We don’t know if that’s “Batman’s” budget here, however, or if it represents the Chicago budget’s 2.5 multiplier or “trickle down” effect on the economy. But who cares. That’s a lot of moolah and represents a lot of work.

Christopher Nolan again directs, and Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman return in the cast.

NEW LOBBYING FIRM FOR IPA. The Illinois Production Alliance has hired The Illinois Governmental Consulting Group to convince the Illinois legislature to extend the wage tax credit bill to a full five years from the one-year extension it got last December.

IGCG representatives are chief lobbyist Brian Hynes, who knows the film business through his Teamsters clients, and Elgie Sims, Jr. Meanwhile: IPA legislative committee, chaired by DGA’s Dan Moore, is finalizing the legislative agenda to present to the spring session.

Hizzoner, Richard M. Daley, has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Leadership in the Arts by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Americans for the Arts. The prestigious honor was presented January 18 at the Mayors’ Arts Luncheon in Washington, D.C.

Mayor Daley was cited for his unwavering support for arts programs in Chicago since taking office in 1989. He was credited with saving and restoring our beautiful old public library and turning it into a cultural center, for “Cows on Parade,” and for the creation of Millennium Park.

O’Connor Casting added full-time session director Lynn Ann Bernatowicz, a former play director for Goodman, Shattered Globe, Circle and University of Pittsburgh theatres. And Sarah Reule rejoined the staff as a session director and Anthony Berg was named office manager. David O’Connor reports working on 150-plus productions commercial, print and corporate so far this year.