Touchstone Pictures

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Touchstone Pictures ( English touchstone = " touchstone "), also known as Touchstone Films , was an American film production company headquartered in Burbank , California , which is now part of the Walt Disney Company as ABC Studios .

Company history

The film company was founded in 1984 by the Disney Company to reach adult moviegoers in addition to traditional family audiences. The background to this decision, made after a few years of deliberation, was the group's serious financial difficulties after a series of flops in the early 1980s. Disney boss Ron Miller explained the company's new strategy in a press release:

"The Walt Disney Pictures name on a production will signal that the film is designed for family entertainment, while the Touchstone name will identify those films that appeal to other parts of the audience."

The first film under the new Touchstone label was Ron Howard's Splash from 1984 with the then unknown actors Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks in the lead roles. It was an instant hit with the public. Incidentally, because of some nude scenes, the film was the first production from Touchstone / Disney Studios that was classified as "R-rated" (not suitable for young people) in America. Towards the end of the 1980s / beginning of the 1990s, Touchstone increasingly relied on animated films : Further box office hits were the animated film / live action film Wrong Game with Roger Rabbit from 1988 and Tim Burton's animated film Nightmare Before Christmas from 1993, which was shot using complex stop-motion technology .

In order to be able to withstand the growing competitive pressure in the film industry with more serious productions, which was the actual founding idea of ​​the Disney Company, Touchstone / Disney presented the tragicomic film The Club of Dead Poets with Robin Williams in 1989 . In the 1990s, Touchstone increasingly produced action films such as Armageddon , The Public Enemy No. 1 or Con Air . For a while there was another adult studio called Hollywood Pictures , which was supposed to secure market share with more undemanding and cheaply financed films, but now the focus is again on the main brands Disney and Touchstone. On February 8, 2007, the Touchstone Televisions label was renamed ABC Television Studio, which was placed on the television segment by the Disney Company. Since May 2007 it has been operating under the name of ABC Studios.

Film productions (selection)

literature

Web links

Coordinates: 34 ° 9 ′ 24.7 "  N , 118 ° 19 ′ 30.2"  W.