Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment
Sean Beard
Captures by
Eric S. and Bob Fish
Editions by
V of Doom
Video captures courtesy of
phasicblu
Background
In 1979, music group EMI merged with electronics company Thorn and subsequently launched their own film division. Both the Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment company and library were sold to Australian businessman Alan Bond in 1986 (who had already gained the Associated Film Distribution library as well), who, in turn, sold them to Cannon Films a week later. The film library was subsequently sold to Weintraub and Lumiere Pictures before the latter company was bought by Canal+ in 1996, while the same year Thorn EMI split. Several Thorn EMI films, including Dreamchild, Morons from Outer Space, and A Passage to India, were retained by Cannon and are now owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The Elstree Studios backlot is now owned by the BBC.
(1984-1986)
Nickname: "Zooming Inverted T"
Logo: We fade into a blue background. Then, a white box containing an upside-down "T" (which resembles a thumbtack) with a smaller rectangular section underneath that reads "THORN EMI" zooms in very quickly and then stops in place.
FX/SFX: The warp-speed zoom-in.
Music/Sounds: None, or the film's opening theme.
Availability: Very rare, due to U.S. prints being distributed by different owners, along with the ownership shifts explained above. This plastered over the previous EMI Film Distributors and Associated British IDs on most library prints it issued to the U.S. market. You would have to search for EMI Film Distributors library titles issued by Thorn EMI Video during the 1980s or off-air videotapes of any EMI-owned movie. On some films, it is preserved following the StudioCanal logo. This is retained on the Trimark DVD release of All of Me (and the YouTube Movies print), the trailer for Supergirl on the WB DVD of said film, Link, and Clockwise, among others.
