Reel success for duo who revive Hollywood classics

Deputy Business Editor

Saturday 25 August 2012

WORKING in the film business immediately conjures up ideas of red carpet glamour, high powered meetings with movie moguls and the dazzling star power of the great and the good of the silver screen.

SCREEN STARS: John Letham and Nick Varley have spent much of the past decade bringing old films to new audiences through their Park Circus business. Picture: James Galloway

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John Letham and Nick Varley don't disappoint on that front as they recount experiences of camera flashbulbs popping at Cannes and cosy dinners with acting royalty.

Inside Glasgow-based Park Circus, best known for re-releasing classic films such as Dr No and The Godfather back into cinemas, things are more understated, though there are nods to the movie world with carefully framed classic film posters adorning the walls.

While the co-founders undoubtedly enjoy the insight their work gives them into the showbusiness life they maintain a down-to-earth focus on the fundamental reasons they run the company. Mr Varley, who started out working in cinemas as a teenager, said: "We are in the film business and a lot of people forget the second word in that phrase. Our primary purpose is to grow and increase revenue. "It is all very well having 15,000 films we can make available but it is what you do with them. "We are lucky and privileged to attend festivals around the world and work with some talent from the films we represent which is a lovely part of the job."You have to be very careful when looking to re-release a film as the danger is doing what you want to do. If you are doing very well you can afford yourself the odd indulgence, but as a general rule you should avoid your own personal tastes as they are not the tastes of the general population."The co-founders tend to work on different areas, with Mr Letham handling the more traditional managing director role and Mr Varley focused on sales and maintaining key relationships with the film studios.Mr Letham, an electronic engineering graduate who spent more than a decade with Motorola, said: "Fingers crossed we always get to a good decision as we've worked with each other for so long we know each other's strengths and weaknesses and how to deal with them."Two heads are better than one. I am very much about attention to detail while Nick is much more about the bigger picture."With its 10th anniversary next year, Park Circus has proved it has staying power even though it remains the only UK film distributor based outside of London.From humble beginnings with the first film licence, the 1960s Bette Davis and Joan Crawford thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, it now presides over a library of 15,000 movies in a variety of formats and a UK DVD label.There is also a consultancy aspect through relationships with film libraries, theatres and festivals which last year helped Park Circus to broker licences for 16,000 screenings around the world.Earlier this year it set up its first overseas subsidiary with an office in Los Angeles to handle work in the American market.Mr Varley, who cites an intimate dinner with Hollywood grand dame Debbie Reynolds as his favourite movie star experience, said: "Over lunch one of our customers said it would be great if I had a Park Circus to do my US domestic business, and I said: 'Why don't we just open an office and do it for you?'"I'd like to say there was some masterplan, but it was very much a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that was taken seriously by the other party. So we had to do something about it and set up Park Circus LLC in January and it is going well."Mr Letham, 46, admits they were surprised by the demand in the US. He said: "It is addressing US distributors with American product. In the scheme of things our business plans always had scaleability but it was one market where we thought they will do it themselves."The company has also invested in an overhaul of its website while an integrated licensing management system also contributes to the smooth running of the business.Mr Varley, 36, said: "We are selling old films in a new way and the website helps us do that. The job we are here to do is to get these films out to audiences that have perhaps heard of these films but may never have seen them. "To do that to modern audiences you have to do that in a modern way and the website is key to that, and it ties in with Twitter and Facebook. "It is primarily a business-to-business website but also a place for people to explore our films, film culture and heritage. It is not just about selling but providing knowledge on the films we represent."With Park Circus recently becoming account-managed by Scottish Enterprise, the entrepreneurial pair are keen for the business to grow further.Mr Letham, who admits to having been starstruck during a recent dinner with Charlotte Ramping, said: "Adding new film libraries and new territories is not a lot of work on the administration side. We have a scaleable model with the technology we have invested in allowing that. We have to look at encouraging ways to get audiences to go to see classic films in cinemas. "You could look at It's A Wonderful Life at Christmas or romantic films around Valentine's Day. If you can tie a film in to an event then people will go out."Mr Varley added: "The next step is digital cinema, which has been a huge advancement, so we need to look at how do we use that to grow the business. We still have a few ideas yet so we are not quite shot."John Letham was working in a marketing job in Glasgow when he met Nick Varley.At the time Mr Varley was joint MD of the Glasgow Film Theatre and involved in launching the Glasgow Film Festival. Prior to that Mr Letham had spent 12 years with Motorola in East Kilbride in a range of marketing positions, but left in 2000.Meanwhile Mr Varley had started his career at 17 as an assistant manager at a cinema in Leeds before moving to Scotland in 1995 to join Caledonian Cinemas, where he ended up running the Grosvenor on Ashton Lane.Then in 2003 the pair set up Park Circus to secure the rights to classic films to get them shown in cinemas.From offices in Glasgow they now help to organise thousands of screenings each year for the back catalogues of studios such as Walt Disney, MGM, Miramax and Sony Pictures.Outside of work Mr Varley enjoys cooking and travelling, while Mr Letham is a fan of photography.

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Reel success for duo who revive Hollywood classics

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