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Dennis Donovan

(18,770 posts)
Fri Jan 17, 2020, 01:41 PM Jan 2020

Disney Drops Fox Name, Will Rebrand as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/disney-dropping-fox-20th-century-studios-1203470349/

By ADAM B. VARY

The mouse has officially killed the fox.

In a move at once unsurprising and highly symbolic, the Walt Disney Company is dropping the “Fox” brand from the 21st Century Fox assets it acquired last March, Variety has learned. The 20th Century Fox film studio will become 20th Century Studios, and Fox Searchlight Pictures will become simply Searchlight Pictures.

On the TV side, however, no final decisions have been made about adjusting the monikers of production units 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios. Discussions about a possible name change are underway, but no consensus has emerged, according to a source close to the situation.

Disney has already started the process to phase out the Fox name: Email addresses have changed for Searchlight staffers, with the fox.com address replaced with a searchlightpictures.com address. On the poster for Searchlight’s next film “Downhill,” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell, the credits begin with “Searchlight Pictures Presents.” The film will be the first Searchlight release to debut with the new logo. “Call of the Wild,” an upcoming family film, will be released under the 20th Century banner, sans Fox.

<snip>

Insiders characterize the change as rather inevitable. Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox last March included the 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, but not the Fox broadcast network or Fox News, which remained part of Fox Corp. under CEO Lachlan Murdoch. That automatically injected a level of brand confusion at odds with the highly differentiated divisions within Disney’s ranks, and Fox Corp. has no reason to change its name.

</snip>


I suspect it's more than "brand confusion" that's making them drop the Fox from its name.

I'm kinda sad about this, as William Fox was a pioneer in film, especially talkies.

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