Epic Productions

Credits

Descriptions by
Michael Bass

Captures by
Eric S., V of Doom, and Supermarty-o, MacBookPro1990 and DudeThatLogo

Background

Epic Productions (also known as "Epic Pictures Enterprises, Inc." and "Epic Entertainment, Inc.") was an independent production company that was created and invested by French-state bank Crédit Lyonnais in 1988 and controlled by Moshe Diamant and Eduard Sarlui (the same people who started Trans World Entertainment in 1983 and became stockholders in Vision P.D.G. International in 1987); Epic, an outgrowth of TWE, was used to buy the assets of the defunct Empire International, in part as a method by Crédit Lyonnais of hiding their hand in Empire's financial issues. Beginning in 1989, its films were distributed by Triumph Releasing Corporation, a unit of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (now Sony Pictures Entertainment). After a period of extended litigation between Crédit Lyonnais, Diamant and Sarlui after the latter two realized the extent of the bank's machinations, Epic was used as the banner under which libraries of films acquired from defunct film companies to which Crédit Lyonnais lent money were handled, dividing them into holding companies named after letters of the Greek alphabet (e.g. Alpha Library Company, Epsilon Library Company, and Omega Library Company). After Epic's closure, the rights to these films were held by Crédit Lyonnais until they were sold to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in 1997. MGM acquired the rights to these films from PolyGram in 1999 and incorporated them into the Orion Pictures library, where the rights currently stand.

1st Logo (January 12-August 24, 1990)

Visuals: On a zooming space background, a purple streak comes down from the top right of the screen, of which its actually made of 3 lines. The streak flies extremely close to the screen, going off of the top right side, circling around the top of the screen, and then flying in from left to right, with the lines shining in them. The streak then flies off, revealing the text "EPIC PRODUCTIONS" in a metallic purple stylized sans serif font, which zooms out. To the left and right sides, winglet-like details made of 3 glowing purple lines flank them.

Variant: Sometimes, a still variant was seen usually on trailers.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Appears on Ski Patrol, Bad Influence, and Men At Work (which was plastered with the 2nd logo on VHS and TV, but was retained on VCD and DVD), among others.

2nd Logo (August 24, 1990-1993?)

• 

Visuals: Fading from black, the screen pans up a bony-looking, gold-tinted rock pedestal, ribbed in design as lightning seems to flash off the sides. The camera starts to zoom out, revealing an orange evening sky, and a warrior with long, shoulder-length hair, knight's armor that doesn't cover his arms, and a black cape, of which he draws his sword and raises it triumphantly into the air. The camera then pulls back to reveal the pedestal was actually the text "EPIC" in a jagged font, with a mountain range behind the logo. Lightning then strikes the sword twice, revealing clouds briefly, and "PRODUCTIONS" fades in below.

Technique: Chroma-keyed live action and CGI.

Audio: A epic-sounding synth theme with occasional drumbeats, some sword-drawing noises, and also thunder at the end.

Availability:

• It was seen on VHS copies and Comedy Central airings of Men At Work (the Comedy Central airings have the 1995 Paramount logo precede this logo, as Viacom (parent company of Paramount) once held TV rights to the Epic Productions catalog).
• The 1993 VHS of Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice (aka Catacombs) has a short version preceding trailers for The Ambulance and The Crawlers, though it's unclear if the VHS releases of those films actually use this logo.
• This doesn't appear on Carlito's Way, which has merely an in-credit reference.

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Epic Productions