Original Film

Credits

Editions by
AUnnamedDragon

Video captures courtesy of
Logo Archive, Broken Saw

Background

Original Film is a production company founded in 1990 by Neal H. Moritz and Bruce Mellon as a film producer and a commercial company. Its first film was a 1990 television film known as Framed. In 1991, David Heyman joined the company as an employee of the motion picture department. The company made three films during this time, Juice, The Stoned Age and the TV movie Blind Justice; all three were credited under "Moritz/Heyman Productions". In 1993, Stokley Chaffin joined the company. Heyman later resigned to form Heyday Films, while Chaffin left in 2001.

Moritz struck a long-time production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1997; it lasted until 2019. Brad Luff joined Original Film at this time; he left in 2003 to run Morgan Creek Entertainment. Between 1997 and 2003, some of Moritz' films were credited under the banner "Neal H. Moritz Productions".

Original Film continued to expand in 1998, when Moritz struck a deal with Newmarket Capital Group to produce lower-budget feature films. The company expanded further in 1999, when Moritz started producing television shows with the debut of Shasta McNasty (produced under the Neal H. Moritz Productions banner). Mark Rossen joined the company at the same time. In 2001, Moritz produced The Fast and The Furious, the first movie in the Fast & Furious franchise, which remains one of Original Film's best-known franchises.

Moritz expanded Original Film further in 2002, launching a partnership with fellow talent agency Marty Adelstein to head "Original", a film and television managing company that comprises Original Film's assets. Dawn Parouse joined the company later that year; she and Adelstein would go on to form Adelstein/Parouse Productions. Moritz later struck a deal with 20th Century Fox Television to produce television shows; this spawned four shows, Greg the Bunny (which the company went uncredited for), Tru Calling, Point Pleasant and Prison Break.

Moritz split the film and managing business in 2004. Former Mandalay Pictures employee Ori Marmur joined the company at the same time. Two years later, Moritz expanded his deal with Sony Pictures to television with a new deal with Sony Pictures Television; this went into effect in 2010 with the debut of The Big C and still remains.

Moritz signed a new feature film deal with Paramount Pictures, which he worked with on Juice, in 2017; the deal went into effect in 2019, with Moritz's first film under the deal, Sonic the Hedgehog, being released in 2020. In August 2020, the deal was extended until 2023, and in April 2024, it was extended further until 2027. However, Original Film continues to work with Sony Pictures on films (mostly sequels) related to those Moritz produced when he was still aligned with Sony, as well as Universal Pictures on the Fast & Furious franchise. As of today, Original Film is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with Moritz as the company's CEO.

Prior to 2000, the company didn't use a logo; earlier films (e.g. I Know What You Did Last Summer and its first sequel) either merely used an in-credit notice (a credit for Moritz himself (i.e. "A Neal H. Moritz Production") was used for films produced under the "Neal H. Moritz Productions" banner, as was the credit "A Moritz/Heyman Production" for Juice, The Stoned Age and Blind Justice, and Volcano credits the company as "Moritz Original") or, in the case of Framed, carried no credit for the company at all.

1st Logo (February 1, 2000)

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Visuals: Over a black background, the print logo of Original Film from the era appears. It consists of a white frame with a speaker's face with a striped bar under his head, placed inside a white box. The word "O R I G I N A L" is posed vertically left to the frame and "F I L M" appears below (a la the 1991-2005 LucasArts logo), all in black, with a small green square in the corner dividing them. The words are in a custom font.

Technique: A still digital graphic.

Audio: The end theme of the movie.

Availability: Seen on the TV movie Cabin by the Lake.

2nd Logo (March 31, 2000-April 29, 2004)

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Visuals: The logo starts with a black background. Then, a yellow director chair fades in. The camera slowly pans up as other contents of a recording room fade in: a director sitting with his megaphone, a man with a film camera, lights and a boom microphone. Then the camera stops at a speaker with a striped bar under his head; this matches the speaker and bar from the previous logo. All the action is made in unique decorative design and with a limited amount of colors, including yellow, green, dark blue and brown. The speaker's head and the bar remain in the frame, while everything else fades out and the name "O R I G I N A LF I L M" in the same font as before appears. The word "FILM" is placed directly below the frame.

Variant: On Cruel Intentions 2 and Return of Cabin by the Lake, the logo is shortened, beginning with the fade-in of the name.

Technique: It appears to be stylized 2D computer animation, along with fading effects.

Audio: A simple uprising composition. Most of the time, it's silent or the opening theme to the movie is heard.

Availability:

• It debuted on The Skulls, and also appeared on its sequels, as well as the direct-to-video film Cruel Intentions 2, and Slackers.
• It also appears on Return of Cabin by the Lake.
• Most movies, including The Fast and the Furious, that film's first sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Saving Silverman, Not Another Teen Movie, and XXX, don't have this logo, instead using an in-credit notice (both Fast & Furious films released during this logo's lifespan instead credits Moritz himself, as does XXX).

3rd Logo (August 8, 2003-)

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  Original version
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  Enhanced version
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  S.W.A.T. (2017) variant
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  Prison Break (2017) variant
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  Sonic the Hedgehog variant
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  Sonic the Hedgehog 2 variant

Visuals: A silver "O" flips in from the darkness on a black background. Then it moves left, making room for "RIGINAL FILM", sandwiched between two lines up and down. While the letters in "RIGINAL" fade in, "FILM" just slides to the right. Together, the letters form "ORIGINAL FILM". The logo shines.

Variants:

• Television shows feature a shortened, sped up version. It starts when the "O" moves left.
• Starting with The Bounty Hunter, released on March 19, 2010, the logo has a more enhanced look, with the letters being wider. The letters in "RIGINAL" also flip in letter-by-letter. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions and Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween both use the original version.
• On Sonic the Hedgehog, the logo is blue and the background is red (meant to represent Sonic's colors).
  • On Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the colors are switched. The version leaked online has brighter colors.
  • Nickelodeon airings of both films have a 16:9 open-matte version.
• On some TV shows, the logo is still.
• On Tru Calling, the logo is stretched and it simply fades in as the letters of "RIGINAL FILM" move from the "O".
• On the 2017 version of S.W.A.T., the logo is above the Perfect Storm Entertainment logo.
• On Point Pleasant and The Boys, it is in warp speed.
• On the 2017 version of Prison Break, the print logo (which resembles the original version of the logo) is used and shares the screen with the Dawn Olmstead Productions and Adelstein Productions logos.

Technique: CGI by RRC.

Audio: None or the movie's opening theme. At the beginning of Vantage Point and the 2012 remake of Total Recall, the tail end of the Columbia Pictures logo's music echoes over the very beginning of the logo, then the logo remains completely silent. The television variant had a humming-like whoosh.

Availability:

• It debuted on S.W.A.T. (the movie).
• It appears on movies such as Vantage Point, Prom Night (2008), I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, Sonic the Hedgehog, its sequel, and most of the Fast & Furious movies starting with the fourth film (the original version was on Fast & Furious, while all the subsequent films (excluding Hobbs and Shaw and F9: The Fast Saga) use the enhanced version).
• The television version can be seen on Prison Break, Tru Calling and the 2017 S.W.A.T. TV series.
• This doesn't appear on XXX: State of the Union, Stealth (2005), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Click (2006), I Am Legend, The Change-Up, R.I.P.D., The Art of Racing in the Rain, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, or F9: The Fast Saga; all of those films just use an in-credit notice.