Disney has unveiled its official 20th Century Studios logo (without Fox) as part of its marketing for The Call of the Wild. Next month marks the one-year anniversary of the Mouse House finalizing its purchase of Fox and its movie and TV assets (Fox News, however, remains under the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox Corp). The $71.3 billion deal has resulted in massive changes to the latter company, including employee layoffs, canceled Fox movies, and Fox 2000 being shut down completely. Even “Fox” itself has been removed from the logos for its 20th Century and Searchlight divisions.

Moving forward, Fox films will instead be released under either 20th Century Studios or Searchlight Pictures. That includes the movies that entered production before the Disney-Fox deal was finalized, like this month’s The Call of the Wild adaptation and April’s long-delayed X-Men spinoff, The New Mutants. The 20th Century Studios logo has now been formally unveiled, as the promotional campaign for Call of the Wild continues.

You can see the logo in The Call of the Wild TV spot embedded below. Notably, the 20th Century Fox YouTube channel and social media accounts have also been re-dubbed 20th Century Studios.

Based on the Jack London novel and Fox’s 1935 film adaptation, The Call of the Wild follows Buck, a St. Bernard/Scotch Collie dog who’s stolen from his home in California and sold to freight haulers in the Gold Rush-era Yukon, where he befriends a man named John Thornton (Harrison Ford). The film has gotten a fairly quiet marketing push so far, with Disney limiting its efforts to a single trailer and a handful of TV spots and featurettes. It cost $109 million to make (though the estimated budget is higher) and is projected for a soft box office opening later this month. That means it’s on course to become the latest 20th Century Fox title to disappoint financially since Disney’s purchase, save for exceptions like the Best Picture-nominated Ford v Ferrari.

With How to Train Your Dragon co-director Chris Sanders calling the shots from a script by Michael Green (Logan, Murder on the Orient Express), it’s possible The Call of the Wild will play well with critics, buoying its box office prospects. It would certainly be a shame if it only ended up being noteworthy as the first movie to release under the 20th Century Studios banner. Meanwhile, Disney has one final Fox 2000 film to drop over the next few months (The Woman in the Window), along with a Kingsman prequel and Murder on the Orient Express sequel, Death on the Nile, later this year. After that, James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and a few extra holdovers will be all the remains of 20th Century Fox.

Source: 20th Century Studios

  • The Call of the Wild Release Date: 2020-02-21