• Star Wars Vs Star Fox

The history of Star Wars and the history of 20th Century Fox, the movie studio that Rupert Murdoch just sold to Disney as one part of a massive $52 billion deal, are intimately intertwined.

Disney and 21st Century Fox's landmark deal heavily benefits Marvel, but you might be surprised at what Star Wars also gets out of the deal.Disney has already developed quite a few films since. Join Film Fest Tucson and the Fox Tucson Theatre for a special weekend of Star Wars films, June 28, 29 & 30. These screenings are your chance to see the original Star Wars trilogy on the big screen. Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

20th Century Fox executive Alan Ladd Jr., known to one and all as Laddie, is the main reason the original Star Wars exists. In the mid 1970s, when gritty pessimistic movies reigned at the box office, Laddie was the only Hollywood executive who understood George Lucas' vision of a blockbuster space fantasy for kids of all ages. He fought the Fox board tooth and nail to make sure it was made.

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SEE ALSO: 'The Last Jedi' zero-spoiler review: See it. Just see it.

The deal Laddie signed allowed Lucas full control over any sequels. So when Star Wars became the biggest movie of all time — saving Fox from skidding into bankruptcy in the process — Lucas was able to use Empire Strikes Back distribution rights as leverage. He gained control of all Star Wars merchandise that way, which is how he funded his own filmmaking empire.

Ungrateful to the end, the Fox board fired Laddie for agreeing to the Empire deal. But he had at least ensured one major chunk of 20th Century Fox's legacy: the studio still had the rights to distribute the original Star Wars, now renamed Episode IV: A New Hope, forever.

That's one possible reason why you haven't seen Disney make any restoration efforts on the original movie. Owning Lucasfilm may give it the rights to change anything it wants, but this is not historically a company that plays well with others. (Witness Disney taking its Star Wars content off Netflix in advance of launching its own streaming service.)

A proper restoration and re-release of Star Wars as it was seen in 1977, without the controversial retrofitting Lucas added in the 1997 Special Edition also released by Fox (the CGI Jabba the Hutt; Greedo shooting at Han) has been at the top of many fans' wishlists for years. There are dozens of free Star Wars 'despecialized editions' from amateur digital restoration artists currently available in the secretive corners of the internet. All represent money lost to the coffers of the Mouse House.

Whether Lucas secured some sort of bargain as part of the Disney sale that his original movie would never be tweaked again or restored, we don't know. It's also possible that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy simply has too much respect for her old friend and mentor to alter his most prized creation. (Currently, so far as Lucasfilm is concerned, the 2011 Blu-Ray edition of A New Hope is the definitive and only version that can be screened.)

But if Disney now feels able to monetize a widespread desire for true 1977 Star Wars without having to look over its shoulder at 20th Century Fox, it may yet do so. After all, that sounds like just the sort of thing to attract early adopters (read: geeks) to its streaming platform.

This Fox deal is getting better all the time.

Fanfare for the common fan

There's one more important aspect of Star Wars history that Disney now owns: the 20th Century Fox fanfare. Those drumrolls! That bright, confident brass! Millions of fans have a Pavlovian response to this sound: it says sit down, shut up, and get ready for some Star Wars.

And for good reason: we almost certainly wouldn't even know about this fanfare without Lucas, who single-handedly rescued it from the scrap heap of movie history.

The brief tune was composed in the 1930s and extended in the 1950s. The militaristic sound became less popular as America protested the Vietnam War in the 1960s. By 1977, it had fallen into total disuse — but Lucas the film nerd insisted it be used for Star Wars. After the movie's success, 20th Century Fox restored the fanfare to all releases.

But it was impossible to disassociate the sound from the space fantasy franchise. Not only did composer John Williams make sure his Star Wars theme was in a complementary key, he even re-recorded the Fox fanfare for Star Wars soundtrack albums.

Wisely, Disney chose not to replace the fanfare with its traditional signature equivalent, When You Wish Upon a Star, for the three Star Wars movies it has distributed thus far. The Force Awakens, Rogue One and now The Last Jedi all begin with silence over the Lucasfilm logo.

That silence is the sound of something lost, though. Without that rambunctious cheer of a fanfare, that call to order in the theater, Star Wars will never feel quite the same.

But the perfect nostalgia-soaked opportunity to restore it is coming up. The spin-off origin tale Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25th, 2018 — Star Wars' 41st birthday.

Surely Han is worth a fanfare, right guys?

20th Century Fox Fanfare

General information

Usage information

The 20th Century Fox Fanfare is a musical piece played to accompany the 20th Century Fox logo when it was displayed during the opening of the movie studio's feature films. The fanfare has been played before the first six Star Wars films, appearing in each episode of the original and prequel trilogies.

HistoryEdit

The 20th Century Fox fanfare was composed in 1933 by Alfred Newman, a longtime head of Fox's music department from 1940 to 1960. In 1953, an extended version was created for CinemaScope films, and debuted on the film How to Marry a Millionaire.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, the 20th Century Fox logo had all but been phased out. However, Lucas enjoyed the logo and Alfred Newman music so much that he insisted it be used for his Star Wars films. The fanfare and logo have, since then, enjoyed a rebirth in usage.

When John Williams signed onto the Star Wars project, one of his first moves was to compose the Main Title to Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope in the same key as the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He has said before that it was truly meant as another extension of the fanfare, and it has since then been adopted by Star Wars film score buffs as part and parcel of the scores to Star Wars.

When Sony released the original trilogySpecial Edition scores, and the Ultimate Edition score to Episode I, each set included on it a recording of the 20th Century Fox fanfare.

When the films were released digitally in April2015 by The Walt Disney Company, the Fox opening, as well as the fanfare, were absent, prompting a disappointed reaction in some fans.^[1]

Usage in Star WarsEdit

• Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope utilizes the original 1954 CinemaScope Extension recording from River of No Return.
• Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back utilizes a new recording by John Williams for the film. This version was used in all of the later Star Wars films as well.
• Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Ultimate Edition soundtrack includes a newly recorded fanfare, also used on the original version of Return of the Jedi.

Notes and referencesEdit

1. ↑Vincent, Alice (April 10, 2015). Why people are so angry about digital Star Wars. The Telegraph. Archived from the original on May 11, 2017. Retrieved on April 11, 2015.

Star Wars Vs Star Fox

External linksEdit

• 20th Century Fox Fanfare on Wikipedia