WHY CINEMA BATTLE IS MADE FOR THE BIG SCREEN
ROB HARRIES looks back at the night the dinosaurs roared into Carmarthen and why Sky wants to make a film about it
LAST month it was announced that Sky is making a film about an old independent theatre in a Welsh town, and how a community, with one woman at the helm, came together to save it from ruin.
It was a very different time, the early 1990s, before the boom and hopefully temporary bust of the multiplex age.
This was never more true than in Carmarthen. But in the summer of 1993, the latest blockbuster didn’t just arrive in town, it hurtled into view with a bang, signed and sealed by arguably the most famous film director of all time.
You may have heard of Steven Spielberg, but you may not have heard about the day he agreed for his record-breaking box office smash Jurassic Park to be shown at Carmarthen’s Lyric Theatre in what would represent a joint UK premiere. No, seriously.
With its ground-breaking special effects which, in 1993, made a trip to the cinema a truly visceral experience, it smashed box office records in the UK and the US and generated more than a billion dollars across the world.
Naturally, Carmarthen wanted a piece of that billion dollars. Independent cinemas and theatres relied – they still do – on drawing in huge numbers. While their independent status gives them charm and offers people some authenticity in a world of corporate rationalisation, there’s only so much money that can be made from local stage productions, comedy nights and seasonal pantomimes.
What they really needed was some hype, the kind you only get with a multimillion-dollar film, the kind that sells 600 tickets again and again and again.
So when it became clear that the disaster movie wasn’t coming to Carmarthen in 1993, many feared it would spell disaster for the future of entertainment in the town. Something had to be done.
It all started, as a lot of good things do, with a chat in a pub. The woman running the theatre, Elizabeth Evans, affectionately known as “Liz the Lyric”, started chewing the fat with then mayor of Carmarthen Richard Goodridge. Mrs Evans, who will be played by Samantha Morton in Sky’s forthcoming movie Save the Cinema, was angry and disappointed.
“My mum was a great storyteller,” said Mark Llewelyn Evans, looking back fondly at his mother, Liz’s, legacy.
“She would always tell us the story of how children would be desperate to see this film, and they were begging her to make sure that she got hold of it for the Lyric. So she chatted to the mayor and it went from there. He sent a fax to America and my mum followed it up with a phone call to Steven Spielberg’s secretary.”
Mark and his brother – fellow opera singer Wynne – would often tell the story about their mother’s role in saving the Lyric and getting Jurassic Park to Carmarthen during afterdinner speeches, which always went down a storm.
Then, Mark helped a friend of his – Welsh scriptwriter Lorraine King – come up with a treatment for the story, which she in turn sent to Sky.
They were intrigued by the “small town meets Hollywood nature” of the tale and asked for a full script to be written, and that’s when Save the Cinema, which will also features Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce, Keith Allen and a small role for Carmarthen stand-up comedian Rhod Gilbert, was born.
“Mum used to run a hair salon in Waterloo Terrace in Carmarthen, and it was there that she heard one day that the Lyric was going to be knocked down,” said Mark, who now runs ABC of Opera, a project which provides workshops for thousands of schoolchildren across Wales.
“She ended up paying a pound a year to the council, which meant that they basically had someone running the building for them for nothing. In return she was able to use it as a home for the local youth opera group and she’d be there every day putting on films. She gave her life to that place.
“When Jurassic Park came out, she and Richard fought so hard to get it because they knew it would give the theatre money and momentum.
“There were queues there night after night, and it allowed her to stay there for years.”
After meeting with Mrs
Evans, Mr Goodridge, a postman in Carmarthen for years, left the Queen’s pub with a dream in his head.
“Elizabeth was telling me about this new film Jurassic Park and how it wasn’t going to be shown down here,” recalled Mr Goodridge.
“She said they had been promised the film but, for whatever reason, it was not going to happen.
“The distribution company was not going to send a copy of it down here. I don’t know why – maybe because the cinema didn’t have that many seats or maybe because Carmarthen was not a place that many people had heard of in London.”
Unperturbed, he went home and started to type.
“Dear Mr Spielberg, I have just been informed that your latest film Jurassic Park will not be seen here at the Lyric Theatre, Carmarthen.
“The Lyric Theatre has advertised extensively that the film is to be shown and indeed thousands now believe that the film will be shown here. However, many thousands are now going to be disappointed, not least to say, very angry that this has happened.
“People have postponed their holidays to see it. I am appealing to you to avert a crisis and look forward to an urgent response.”
A few days after pressing the send button on his fax machine, things, incredibly, started to move. Middle-of-the night conversations took place across the Atlantic, and a woman from Mr Spielberg’s office guaranteed that the fax would be passed directly to the world’s most successful film director.
Still, any excitement that existed was fuelled by hope rather than expectation, until six days later, that is, when a letter arrived in Carmarthen all the way from LA.
In it, the managing director of United International Pictures said: “In order not to disappoint the people of Carmarthen, I have now given instructions for a print of Jurassic Park to be allocated to the Lyric Cinema.”
But, as Mr Goodridge explained, that was not all.
“Not only did they agree to show the film, but it was to be shown at the same time as the premiere in London – a day earlier than the widespread release.”
The rest, in Carmarthen anyway, is history. On the evening of July 15, 1993, while Princess Diana and other members of the great and good walked the red carpet in London, 200 miles away crowds queued along Carmarthen’s unrugged King Street having paid £2.50 to see Jurassic Park before the rest of the UK.
Crucially, when all the dinosaur posters had been torn down and the fanfare had faded, the bean counters at the Lyric had something to do again.
“It was clear that the financial state of the Lyric Theatre was poor at that time,” said Mr Goodridge.
“I was surprised when I received a response to my letter but even more surprised by the media reaction at the time. We had BBC, ITN and Sky News all down here in the town.”
Mr Goodridge, having helped pull off one dream, still holds on to another that perhaps, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of that balmy and glorious night in Carmarthen, it can happen all over again.
“I would love, at some point, to have the film shown at the Lyric again. We could raise a lot of money and give it all to charity – that would be amazing.”
The Lyric no longer shows films on the big screen, a casualty it seems of the choice and convenience on offer elsewhere, be it in 10-screen shopping centres or in people’s front rooms, but Mark Llewelyn Evans, whose mother died aged 60 in 2004, believes you will never be able to replicate the magic that the Lyric conjured up.
“We now have access to so many things straight away, be it Netflix or Prime Video, but there is undoubtedly something about a building like that,” he said.
“My mum fought so hard to save the building because she just loved the place, as did so many in the community.
“The production team from Sky that are working on the film are all top drawer, people who have worked on big projects before, and the reason they’re involved is because of the story.
“It would be great if somebody now, whether from the council or elsewhere, had the vision to get it back, because it’s sad to see it at times with nothing happening there.
“That building was and is so important and we’re proud of the lady who saw its potential. She would be made up to see this film being made; she loved a good story and this is a brilliant story.”
It certainly is, and it’s one that will for ever keep the Lyric Theatre on the map.
With any luck, by the time Save the Cinema is released towards the end of 2021, those audiences will be able to return.