‘Star Wars VII’ Will Have Major Change to Opening: No Fox Fanfare

OK, since the Fox Fanfare was recorded so long ago, perhaps it's now in the public domain and can be used without permission or royalties to Fox or whoever owned the copyright.

 

Even if Disney could use the fanfare for free, would they slap it on top of their own logo? That'd seem weird.

And even if Fox gave them the fanfare AND the logo, I still think it's unlikely Disney invested $4 billion so their first high-profile effort could start with another studio's music and name!

 

This has to be the silliest discussion I've seen in awhile.

It's a different studio, why the hell would they want to promote Fox when they have nothing to do with it?

 

Don't forget to throw some salt over your shoulder before the opening credits…watch out for black cats and don't walk under any ladders. If you follow these instructions it will be a good film, if you don't it will surely be a disaster.

 

Tradition!

I do understand the dismay over the probably absence of the Fox logo/fanfare - of all the movies ever created, "Star Wars" might have the best-known match of logo/fanfare and film. As many have noted, when they hear the Fox fanfare and see that logo in front of ANY movie, they reflexively feel like they're going to watch a "Star Wars" flick.

But while it'll be strange to see a "Star Wars" movie without the Fox brand, it's even weirder to think that Disney would spend $4 billion and then promote another studio.

My best case scenario? They use the Disney logo but keep it silent - sorry, but the abbreviated "When You Wish Upon A Star" would be a weird mismatch with the "Star Wars" theme.

Just show the Disney castle and "A long time ago..." visuals without any sound and then blast us with the theme.

Dunno if this WILL happen, but it seems a lot more probable than the inclusion of the Fox logo/fanfare...

 

I can almost guarantee there will be no Disney castle, just like the Marvel movies don't have the Disney castle. There will be some sort of Lucasfilm logo, possibly preceded by a silent or text-only Disney logo.

 

I seem to remember hearing a bizarre story that when that Star Wars cartoon came out a few years ago, despite opening with the Warner Bros. logo it kept the Fox fanfare. Can't confirm or deny but it certainly sounds like the weirdest thing ever.

Is Disney putting out these franchise movies as Disney features? I generally skirt superhero and sci-fi stuff so I haven't seen any, but don't they have Touchstone and such for that sort of thing?

 

They can play disco music before the movie if that is what it takes for the new films to be better than the prequels for all I care.

 

I still expect to see the United Artists logos before "A Hard Day's Night," it just doesn't look right without it.

 

It's incorrect. I just played the "Clones Wars" disc and it opens with the standard wavy WB logo and "As Time Goes By"...

 

I am sure we will see "Bad Robot" as well.

 

Huh, interesting. Sorry for the misinfo!

 

I would have thought Fox would have included that in the deal for any rights they own(ed) going forward. If George doesn't want the Fox Fanfare, then it won't be in it. And yes, studios have done splits before (Titanic comes to mind) where one studio did a tremendous amount of work and spent money, and the other did not - or rather, one of the studios accepted that they would pay "if" it went over budget - so they got hurt badly in terms of gross margin (even though the movie made a lot of money) when it went way over budget. One studio handled the US territories (Paramount), the other got rest of world.

Fox paid for and distributed the 6 Star Wars films, handled/paid for press and advertising for the entire series. Fox is a large part of WHY the Star Wars franchise exists and became so huge.

Want to dismiss their contribution going forward and break creative continuity? So be it. I imagine anyone who thinks its inappropriate to have the Fox Fanfare included creatively somehow is probably also against Bad Grandpa having a dedication credit to the memory of Ryan Dunn. Why do it? He's dead, gone, and probably had little to do with the development of the character that is now making tons of cash on screen.

But for those claiming "It's a new direction - a whole new thing", well, I imagine you're furious at the return of Harrison Ford as Han Solo.

Jeff

 

What's far more important is that Kasdan and Abrams are in and Lucas is out. The Fox logo was and is irrelevant.

 

Capitol Records paid for and released what, 20 Paul McCartney albums? But Paul doesn't record for Capitol anymore. Should he keep putting their logo on his records because people are used to seeing it next to his name?

 

Capitol was never musically/creatively integrated into The Beatles/Paul's music so it's not apples to apples. But good point - yes, I would certainly give a Special Thanks to EMI and Capitol if I were him.

Jeff

 

This thread is absurd. No Fox? No Fox fanfare. PERIOD. Get over it.

 

How about this:

You get together with a girl who broke up with another guy. When you/she introduces herself, are you going to be OK with her saying, "I'm so and so's old girlfriend" or "I dated so and so first" instead of just "I'm Captain Groovy's girlfriend"? How about if you married a divorced woman? Should her ex-husband's name be in front of her new last name (yours)?

 

Why don't you pay tribute to your parents at the beginning of every message you post? Your parents conceived and gave birth to you, they spent a lot of money to raise you during your entire childhood, and yet you don't thank them at every occasion you get.

Fox, as a company, wasn't enthusiastic on Star Wars and almost killed the project. It was Alan Ladd, Jr. who faced the entire board of directors, and defended the film he had greenlit. When the first film turned out to be a monster hit, they fired him because he had agreed to give Lucasfilms all the rights for merchandising and property of the picture, depriving them of a lot of the money and giving Lucas the financial independence he wanted.
After that, they paid for promotion and distribution for sequels and prequels that were the closest equivalent to a money printing machine. But they didn't pay for any episode, outside of the first film. They were self-financed by Lucasfilms. Fox gave them a loan when The Empire Strikes Back went over budget, but that's basically all.
And, as it turns out, it was John Williams who recorded and used the fanfare to great effect, while the logo had been shown silent for years, not Fox that suggested Lucas to bring the fanfare back. It's because of Star Wars that some people get a shiver through their spine every time they hear the fanfare at the beginning of a movie distributed by Fox, not the magic of 20th Century Fox that made the score for Star Wars so exciting.

It's completely ridiculous that a new film in the series should give special thanks to a company that has zero creative input or business involvement with it. Especially in Hollywood, where people have short term memory and you're just worth as much as your latest project, and no sane player would be deferential to a competitor for the sake of it. Or where you can lose all intellectual property on your work because you forgot to put a copyright on screen (just ask George Romero).
There are six Star Wars movies shot over the course of 25 years, where you can hear the fanfare in all its glory, and they are not erased because the sequels have switched to a new studio. If anything, the new film should give a special thanks to people like Alan Ladd Jr., Gary Kurtz, Marcia Lucas, and a few others, who are the true underestimated talents of the original trilogy and who never really got their proper credit.

Will it sound weird when the Star Wars theme plays after a different tune? Yes, definitely.
How would it be if episode VII used the Fox fanfare and logo next to or instead a Disney mention? Even weirder…

 

Well that's just what music and movies need - more corporate logos.

All those of you who need the fox logo and fanfare, just que it up on your smartphone and play it before the movie starts. I'm sure the rest of the theater patrons won't mind.