Wild Bunch

Background
Wild Bunch AG is a pan-European film distribution and international sales company, originally created in 1979 as Senator Film Verleih GmbH, which later became Senator Entertainment AG. The name Wild Bunch comes from the French company Wild Bunch S.A., created in 2002, which became a subsidiary of Senator Entertainment in February 2015. In 2007, they bought a minority stake in the Italian company BIM Distribuzione, in 2011, a majority stake in Spanish film distributor Vertigo and in July 2015, renamed itself to Wild Bunch AG. Wild Bunch has distributed and sold films such as Land of the Dead (2005), Southland Tales (2006), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Che (2008), Whatever Works (2009), The King's Speech (2010), The Artist (2011), Titane and Where Is Anne Frank (2021). In France, they operate a subsidiary called Wild Side, which is also used for home video.

Wild Bunch is also the international seller of Studio Ghibli's works and since September 2020, have taken over work from Disney to become Ghibli's theatrical, home media and television distributor in France.

1st Logo (1987-1996)
Logo: We see a layered blue figure on a dark sky background, which rotates to another side and then shows gray surface, where a light ray projects from beyond and starts to draw the letter "S" which is made as twice-folded film with a very extremely long tail. The ray draws the tail forward, which contains the words "SENATOR FILM" written over it, then the letter leaves off into the sky and shines.

Technique: The logo is drawn, the dark sky background and the forming of the letter S which is silver-painted.

Music/Sounds: Majestic trumpet fanfares, or no music at all.

Availability: Very rare. Was seen on very old German-released tapes of films that were either distributed or made by Senator during that era, for example Stalingrad (1993), Fried Green Tomatoes, Happy Birthdya, Türke!, Undine (1992), Braindead, Dust Devil (1992), The Crying Game and on German theatrical trailers for Army of Darkness (or Evil Dead III), Merta - Der Film (Merta - The Film), Ein Mann für jede Tonart, Rosnemill (1993), Shortcuts, Texas - Doc Snyder hält die Welt in Atem, Backbeat, The High Crusade, Once Were Warriors (1994), Heavenly Creatures, Die Sieger, Felidae, Mario und der Zauberer (Mario and the Zauberer), 00 Schneider - Jagd Auf Nihil Baxter (The Search for Nihil Baxter) as well as many other films that are either distributed or made by Senator in this era. The logo is retained on the 1998 DVD of Stalingrad (coming after the Fox Lorber logo) and most other European releases of said film.

2nd Logo (1996?-2007)
Logo: We see the white oval with a black symbol which is very similar to the S-fold from the very previous logo, as well as the name "SENATOR FILM" below.

Variant: There is an animated version for their Production division. A white band with red sides appears. Then it folds twice, forming an S-shaped figure. The figure becomes black, goes inside the red oval, and zooms out, followed by the name.

Technique: None, only zooming. In the animated version, besides just zooming, it has the S-shaped figure being formed.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare. Was seen on German releases, such as The Actors.

3rd Logo (2008-2015)
Logo: We pan over a night-time sky with a full moon and move down to the surface of water and clouds. The stretched word "SENATOR" appears, shines, and compresses. Then the stylized gray filmstrip, as viewed from the side, flashes in below. The background then fades out.

Variants:
 * For Home Entertainment version, there was no animation and black background.
 * On some trailers, only the name was seen over the water.

Technique: The logo forms.

Music/Sounds: A calm xylophone-like melody.

Availability: Seen on German releases and several films produced by the company.

(2002- )
Logo: On a black background, two white glowing sparks come in from both the right side and the upward side of the screen and start drawing a symbol (a conjoined "wb"). Once the sparks connect, a bright light shines on the screen, and the text "wild bunch" fades in below as the logo zooms out.

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: Sounds of electric sparking.

Availability: Current and very common. Seen on all international German/French releases of American films. It also appeared on the American prints of the Netflix film The Little Prince, plastering the M6 logo.