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81-478: Touchstone Pictures was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios , founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company . Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featured more mature themes targeted at adult audiences than typical Walt Disney Pictures films. As such, Touchstone was merely a pseudonym label for the studio and did not exist as

162-462: A Madison Avenue sign. She tells Allen that she will be in New York for "six fun-filled days, and the moon is full", unable to return home if she stays any longer. Despite Madison's occasionally outlandish behavior, she and Allen fall in love. He proposes to her, but she declines and runs away. After some contemplation, Madison returns to Allen and agrees to marry him, with the added promise of telling him

243-408: A boom barrier and explain the purpose of their visit to a security guard . The sound stage is the central component of a studio lot. Most studios have several; small studios may have as few as one, and large studios have as many as 20 to 30. Movie studios also provide office space for studio executives and production companies, and makeup rooms and rehearsal rooms for talent. If space allows,

324-466: A distinct business operation . Established on February 15, 1984, by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller as Touchstone Films , Touchstone operated as an active film production division of Disney during the mid 1980s through the early 2010s, releasing a majority of the studio's PG-13 and R-rated films. In 2009, Disney entered into a five-year, thirty-picture distribution deal with DreamWorks Pictures under which DreamWorks' productions would be released through

405-427: A weighted average , assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". One of the film's few negative reviews came from Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times , who gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and thought the film's biggest failing was casting then-unknown Hanks as the lead rather than the established comedy actor John Candy : "They should have made Candy

486-575: A Baby , Sister Act , and Real Steel — for Disney+ and Hulu . Some well-known Touchstone Pictures releases include Beaches , Turner & Hooch , Splash , The Color of Money , Down and Out in Beverly Hills , Good Morning, Vietnam , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Dead Poets Society , Dick Tracy , Pretty Woman , Sister Act , Ed Wood , Up Close & Personal , The Waterboy , The Insider , The Royal Tenenbaums , Sweet Home Alabama , The Hitchhiker's Guide to

567-399: A PG-rating for some profanity and brief nudity, and was critically and commercially successful, earning over $ 69 million on an $ 11 million budget, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1984 , and received praise for the acting, humor, and chemistry between Hanks and Hannah. In 1964, eight-year-old Allen Bauer and his family are taking a boat tour at Cape Cod , Massachusetts . Allen

648-432: A diving expedition. When his motorboat restarts, Allen falls into the sea and is knocked unconscious; his wallet drops onto the coral below. He later wakes up on a beach, in the presence of a beautiful naked young woman who is unable to talk. After kissing Allen, the woman dives into the sea, where she transforms into a mermaid. While swimming underwater, she is sighted by Kornbluth. The mermaid finds Allen's wallet, and uses

729-644: A growing proportion of Hollywood movie revenue, with approximately 70% of total movie revenue coming from international ticket sales; and the Chinese domestic box-office revenue is projected to outpace those of US in 2020. The growth of film studios and filmmaking outside of Hollywood and the US has produced popular international film studio locations such as Hollywood North ( Vancouver and Toronto in Canada ), Bollywood ( Mumbai , India ), and Nollywood ( Lagos , Nigeria ). As

810-420: A loss of $ 33 million in 1983, resulting primarily from such films as the adaptation of Ray Bradbury 's horror-fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way Comes , the horror-comedy The Devil and Max Devlin starring Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby , and the dramas Tex and Never Cry Wolf , the latter a PG release that featured male nudity , which did well as the studio downplayed the film's association with

891-433: A movie studio has usually been housed on a "studio lot." Physically, a studio lot is a secure compound enclosed by a tall perimeter wall. This is necessary to protect filmmaking operations from unwanted interference from paparazzi and crazed fans of leading movie stars . Movement in and out of the studio lot is normally limited to specific gates (often capped with grand decorative arches), where visitors must stop at

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972-551: A six-picture deal with Disney and became a major film star again with these hits as well as Beaches and Outrageous Fortune . One of the most notable producers of Touchstone films was Jerry Bruckheimer , who had a production deal with Disney from 1993 to 2014. Touchstone films produced by Bruckheimer include The Ref , Con Air , Armageddon , Enemy of the State , Gone in 60 Seconds , Coyote Ugly , and Pearl Harbor . Bruckheimer also produced several other films released under

1053-788: A studio may have an outside backlot . Finally, there is a studio "commissary", which is the traditional term in the movie industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria . In addition to these basic components, the largest film studios are full-service enterprises offering the entire range of production and post-production services necessary to create a motion picture, including costumes, props, cameras, sound recording, crafts, sets, lighting, special effects , cutting, editing, mixing, scoring, automated dialogue replacement (ADR), re-recording, and foley . Independent suppliers of all these services and more (e.g., photographic processing labs) are often found in clusters in close proximity to film studios. Nitrate film , manufactured until 1951,

1134-450: A sunken ship's charts to locate New York. She comes ashore naked at the Statue of Liberty and is arrested for indecent exposure . Using information from the wallet, the police contact Allen and she is released into his care. The mermaid learns how to speak English from watching television, and is eager to explore the city. Unable to say her real name in human language, she selects "Madison" from

1215-527: A total of eight generally recognized major studios. United Artists, although its controlling partners owned not one but two production studios during the Golden Age, had an often-tenuous hold on the title of major and operated mainly as a backer and distributor of independently produced films. Smaller studios operated simultaneously with the majors. These included operations such as Republic Pictures , active from 1935, which produced films that occasionally matched

1296-640: A tram tour of the backlot where films such as Psycho and Back to the Future were once shot. In fall 2019, movie mogul Tyler Perry opened Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta . The studio lot is claimed to be larger than any movie-studio lot in Hollywood. In the 1980s and 1990s, as the cost of professional 16mm film equipment decreased, along with the emergence of non-film innovations such as S-VHS and Mini-DV cameras, many young filmmakers began to make films outside

1377-465: A young man who falls in love with a mysterious woman who is secretly a mermaid . The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay . It is notable for being the first film released by Touchstone Pictures , a film label created by Walt Disney Studios that same year in an effort to release films targeted at adult audiences, with mature content not appropriate for the studio's flagship Walt Disney Pictures banner. Splash received

1458-451: Is "For Promotional Use Only" and that it has been "Manufactured for the composer...". Although this release is very hard to find brand new and may in fact be out of print, it is still obtainable from certain film soundtrack specialist retailers and also occasionally used from certain online stores. This CD has every track that the LP and cassette have but has a considerably longer running length due to

1539-410: Is fascinated by something below the surface and jumps overboard, even though he cannot swim. In the ocean, he encounters a young girl and when they hold hands, he inexplicably finds himself able to breathe underwater. However, Allen is rescued and pulled back to the surface, and the two are separated. Since no one else saw the girl, Allen comes to believe the encounter was a near-death hallucination. After

1620-426: Is seized by government agents and taken to a secret lab, headed by Kornbluth's cold-hearted rival Dr. Ross for examination. As she withers away in captivity, Kornbluth learns that the scientists are planning to dissect her, causing him to regret his actions. Allen is shocked by Madison's secret and rejects her, but when he voices his disillusionment to his brother, Freddie lashes out at him, reminding him how happy he

1701-522: Is the case with its motion picture and television counterparts, Touchstone Interactive merely acted as a brand label of Disney Interactive and not its own entity. The only title it released was the Turok video game in 2008. In the early 1990s, after having pulled their comic licenses from Gladstone Publishing and begun to create comics based on Disney properties themselves through the Disney Comics label,

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1782-503: The 1918 flu epidemic by Los Angeles compared to other American cities reduced the number of cases there and resulted in a faster recovery, contributing to the increasing dominance of Hollywood over New York City. The Big 5 By the mid-1920s, the evolution of a handful of American production companies into wealthy motion picture industry conglomerates that owned their own studios, distribution divisions , and theaters , and contracted with performers and other filmmaking personnel led to

1863-475: The Academy Award for Best Picture : Dead Poets Society , The Insider , The Help , War Horse , Lincoln , and Bridge of Spies . Through Touchstone, Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills , was released on January 31, 1986, and was a box office success. Ruthless People followed on June 27, 1986, and was also very successful. Both of these pictures starred Bette Midler , who had signed

1944-499: The Bahamas since purchased by Disney and renamed Castaway Cay . Donald Peterman served as the film's cinematographer, with Jon Fauer serving as camera operator for the film's New York scenes. Hannah's mermaid tail was designed and created by Academy Award-winning visual effects artist Robert Short . The tail was fully functional. Hannah swam with the mermaid tail so fast that her safety team could not keep pace with her. According to

2025-566: The Hollywood area was Nestor Studios , opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley . In the same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in places such as Culver City , Burbank , and what would soon become known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley . The stronger early public health response to

2106-407: The 12 extra tracks. These extra tracks include more of the original music from the film, the theme song (by Lee Holdridge and Will Jennings ) sung by Rita Coolidge and alternate versions of some of the tracks which appear on the LP and Cassette. The catalogue number for this release is LH CD – 02. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner 's book Freakonomics (2006) credits the film with popularizing

2187-711: The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003 and other films that in the 1980s and 1990s would have been released as Touchstone or Hollywood Pictures films, Disney weighed distribution of films more toward Disney-branded films and away from Touchstone, though not entirely disbanding them as it continued to use the Touchstone label for R and most PG-13-rated fare. In 2006, Disney limited Touchstone's output to two or three films in favor of Walt Disney Pictures titles due to an increase in film industry costs. Disney indicated scaling back on using multiple brands in 2007 with

2268-482: The DVD documentary, Hannah had been swimming "mermaid" style with her legs bound together since she was a child, due to her fascination with Hans Christian Andersen 's " The Little Mermaid " story. However, the exceptionally detailed film tail was difficult to remove. For the sake of efficiency, Hannah at first kept it on while the cast had lunch. In the documentary included on the 20th-anniversary Splash DVD, Hanks recalled how

2349-634: The Disney and Hollywood Pictures labels. Releases from Touchstone were distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and through home media platforms by Buena Vista Home Entertainment (branded as "Touchstone Home Entertainment"). Touchstone Television served as Touchstone Pictures' counterpart label for television programming, producing television series including The Golden Girls , Blossom , Home Improvement , My Wife and Kids , Desperate Housewives , Lost , Grey's Anatomy , Scrubs , Criminal Minds , and Monk . In 2007,

2430-409: The Disney brand. Touchstone Films was founded by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller on February 15, 1984, as a label for their PG films, with an expected three to four movies released under the label. Touchstone Films' first film was Splash , a huge hit that grossed $ 68 million at the domestic box office that year. Touchstone Films was a brand chosen from over 1,200 potential names; the runner-up name

2511-637: The Edison company in 1912. The pioneering Thanhouser movie studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser . The company produced and released 1,086 movies between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world. In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California . Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film;

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2592-533: The Galaxy , The Prestige , The Help , War Horse , Lincoln , and Bridge of Spies . Its highest-grossing film release is Armageddon . Although animated films produced by Walt Disney Studios are primarily released by Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone's animated releases include the original theatrical release of The Nightmare Before Christmas , Gnomeo & Juliet , The Wind Rises , and Strange Magic . Six Touchstone films have received nominations for

2673-464: The Touchstone banner; the label then distributed DreamWorks' films from 2011 to 2016. Following the release of The Light Between Oceans , the final film of the DreamWorks deal, the Touchstone label was retired. Due to the increased public assumption that Disney films were aimed at children and families, films produced by Walt Disney Productions began to falter at the box office. This began in 1975 with

2754-638: The Walt Disney Studios announced the formation of the Hollywood Pictures division, which would only share marketing and distribution with Touchstone, to fill the void. Mestres was appointed president of Hollywood. On July 27, 1992, Touchstone agreed to an exclusive, first-look production and distribution agreement with Merchant Ivory Productions for three years. Following the success of the Disney-branded PG-13-rated Pirates of

2835-460: The ability to swim and breathe underwater. Frogmen try to recapture them, but the couple fight them off and escape. Allen discards his jacket and the couple happily swims toward what appears to be an underwater kingdom. Screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel both make cameo appearances in the film. Ganz plays Stan, the tour guide, in the scene set at the Statue of Liberty. Mandel plays Rudy,

2916-670: The best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles . Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company , based in New York City, controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. Early movie producers relocated to Southern California to escape patent enforcement, thanks to more lenient local courts and physical distance from company detectives and mob allies. (Edison's patents expired in 1913.) The first movie studio in

2997-465: The boat pulls away, the young girl is revealed to be a mermaid . Twenty years later, Allen is now co-owner of a wholesale fruit and vegetable business in New York City with his womanizing older brother Freddie. Throughout the years, Allen's relationships have failed as he subconsciously seeks the connection he feels other couples enjoy. Depressed after his latest breakup, Allen returns to Cape Cod, where he encounters eccentric scientist Walter Kornbluth on

3078-461: The company additionally considered an expansion into the burgeoning adult comics market (the expansion also included Hollywood Comics , modeled after Hollywood Pictures, and Vista Comics , offering stories based on Disney's superhero and adventure films). Former DC Comics editor Art Young led the nascent effort, which was aided by his contacts within the British and American comic markets. The new label

3159-576: The company to cut back on its comic book ambitions, and Touchmark was scrapped. Young subsequently returned to DC and helped launch the Vertigo imprint in 1993, using many of the intended projects from Touchmark. Now as Marvel Comics. Film studio There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not entertainment companies or motion picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space. In 1893, Thomas Edison built

3240-475: The company was renamed ABC Studios as part of a move by Disney to re-align its studios around core brands such as ABC. On August 10, 2020, Disney announced that it would revive the Touchstone Television brand as a renaming of Fox 21 Television Studios as part of its phase-out of the "Fox" brand from the studios it acquired from 21st Century Fox . At the same time, the existing ABC Studios merged with

3321-505: The couple. Despite being pursued, Allen and Madison make it to New York Harbor . Madison tells Allen that he can survive underwater as long as he is with her, prompting Allen to realize that she was the girl he had met underwater as a child. She warns him that if he comes to live in the sea, he will never be able to return to land. Madison dives into the water as the troops close in on them. When they attempt to arrest Allen, he jumps in after her, but starts to drown. She kisses him, gifting him

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3402-484: The edge we can add to the humor." He stated that one of the first films that would be released under this new brand was Trenchcoat , a comedy caper starring Margot Kidder and Robert Hays ; however, the new brand had not yet been created by the time of the film's release in March 1983, so it was instead released by Walt Disney Productions, but with no production company credited in the released prints. The company registered

3483-472: The federal government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court , which ruled that the vertically integrated structure of the movie industry constituted an illegal monopoly . This decision, reached after twelve years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system and Hollywood's "Golden Age". By the 1950s, the physical components of a typical movie studio had become standardized. Since then,

3564-427: The film for the popularization. In a 2014 interview, Hannah commented on the irony of the name's popularity and subsequent acceptance as a standard first name given its origins as a joke based on Madison being primarily known as a street name at the time: It's funny because no one understands the irony, because the whole point of me choosing that name was because it [was such a] silly name...Obviously everyone knew it as

3645-717: The film industry had once hoped—movie studios were increasingly being used to produce programming for the burgeoning medium. Some midsize film companies, such as Republic Pictures , eventually sold their studios to TV production concerns , which were eventually bought by larger studios, such as the American Broadcasting Company which was purchased by Disney in 1996. With the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games , television stations , broadcast syndication , television , theme parks , home video and publishing , they have become multi-national corporations. International markets account for

3726-459: The film. The key to the proposal's success was that Grazer changed the premise description from the idea of a mermaid adjusting to life in New York City to that about a love story about an ordinary man in New York City meeting a mermaid. An issue at the time of production was the competition between Splash and another announced (but untitled) mermaid film from Warner Bros. that had lined up Warren Beatty as its star. Director Ron Howard promised

3807-557: The final theatrical film released by Disney under the Touchstone banner. Universal Pictures then replaced Disney as DreamWorks' distributor. Disney retained the film rights to these DreamWorks films in perpetuity as compensation for the studio's outstanding loan. Following the release of The Light Between Oceans , the label became defunct. Since then, several other Disney divisions have produced or are developing television series and films based on previous Touchstone properties—such as Turner & Hooch , High Fidelity , Three Men and

3888-571: The first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria , a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange , New Jersey , and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The first film serial , What Happened to Mary , was released by

3969-452: The label's interest. In addition to DreamWorks' films, Touchstone also released non-Disney-branded animated films such as Gnomeo & Juliet , The Wind Rises , and Strange Magic . By the end of the DreamWorks deal in August 2016, Disney had distributed 14 of DreamWorks' original 30-picture agreement, with thirteen through Touchstone. The deal ended with The Light Between Oceans being

4050-559: The lover, and Hanks the brother. Then we'd be on the side of this big lunk who suddenly has a mermaid drop into his life." Colin Greenland of Imagine magazine stated that " Splash is an adult film that has the grace to treat fantasy with sensitivity and a sense of humour." A soundtrack album of Lee Holdridge 's music for the film was released on both vinyl LP and cassette in the United Kingdom by Cherry Lane Records Ltd in 1984, with

4131-430: The man in charge of ice skate rentals who tackles Hanks' character when he tries to run out with his skates still on. Director Ron Howard's father, actor Rance Howard , can be seen early in the film as Mr. McCullough, an unhappy customer screaming at Allen about his cherries. Howard's brother Clint Howard appears as a wedding guest, identified by Candy's character as the bride's brother and yelled at by Hanks. The film

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4212-456: The momentum with additional PG-13 and R-rated films with Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Tin Men (1987), and other top movies. In April 1986, Touchstone films were licensed to Showtime/The Movie Channel for five years, starting in 1987. Touchstone Films was renamed Touchstone Pictures after the release of Ruthless People in 1986. With Touchstone films, Disney moved to

4293-483: The music re-recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer and the love theme song covered by Kira McClelland. Both have been out of print for many years. The catalogue numbers for these releases were PIPLP 710 and ZCPIP 710 respectively. In 2000, the original music was released on a 26-track CD in the United States by Super Tracks Music Group. The back cover states that this product

4374-455: The name Madison for girls, as does Steven Pinker 's The Stuff of Thought (2007). In the film, Hannah's character takes her name from Madison Avenue (itself named after President James Madison ) after walking past a road sign. Hanks' character comments that "Madison's not a name" as, at the time, it was an extremely rare first name for a woman. However, in the years since the film was released in theaters and re-released on VHS and then DVD,

4455-402: The name of the street. No one really saw it as a first name and that was a joke. And now, of course it's not funny at all. It's just like, 'Oh, what a beautiful name!'...It was funny at the time and now it's not even ironic. In June 2016, producer Brian Grazer announced that he was working on a remake of Splash , although this version would be told from the point of view of the mermaid, which

4536-479: The name's popularity has skyrocketed. According to the Social Security Administration , the name Madison was the 216th most popular name in the United States for girls in 1990, the 29th most popular name for girls in 1995, and the third most popular name for girls in 2000. In 2005, the name cracked the top 50 most popular girls' names in the United Kingdom, and articles in British newspapers credit

4617-515: The next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the horror-mystery The Watcher in the Woods , the spy-themed comedy Condorman , and the Paramount Pictures co-produced fantasy epic Dragonslayer . With Disney's 1982 slate of PG-rated films, which included the thriller drama Night Crossing and the science-fiction film Tron , the company lost over $ 27 million. Tron

4698-436: The other cast members would drop French fries over the side of the tank to her as though she were a trained sea mammal, because she could not leave the water while her legs were "shrink-wrapped". Produced on a $ 11 million budget, Splash grossed $ 6.2 million on its opening weekend and finished its run with a gross of $ 69.8 million in the United States and Canada, making it the tenth highest-grossing film of 1984 . The film

4779-468: The previous iteration of ABC Signature Studios to form ABC Signature . However, on December 1, 2020, Disney announced the revived Touchstone Television label would be folded into 20th Television . Subsequently, on October 1, 2024, Disney announced that ABC Signature would also be folded into 20th Television. By the end of 2007, Disney's video game subsidiary Buena Vista Games had begun to produce material under its own short-lived Touchstone imprint. As

4860-399: The release of Escape to Witch Mountain and its 1978 sequel . In late 1979, Walt Disney Productions released The Black Hole , a science-fiction movie that was the studio's first production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed via Buena Vista Distribution its first PG-rated film, Take Down , almost a year before the release of The Black Hole ). Over

4941-781: The renaming of Touchstone Television to ABC Television Studio in February and the outright elimination of the Buena Vista brand in April. On January 14, 2010, Sean Bailey was appointed president of live-action production at Walt Disney Studios, overseeing all films produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures. In 2009, Disney repurposed Touchstone as a distribution label for films produced by DreamWorks Studios . Disney provided $ 100 million in financing to DreamWorks productions and an additional $ 75 million credit line if DreamWorks could not get additional equity funding. In January 2012, Disney

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5022-504: The scale and ambition of the larger studio, and Monogram Pictures , which specialized in series and genre releases. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National, the minor studios filled the demand for B movies and are sometimes collectively referred to as Poverty Row . The Big Five's ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , Walt Disney , Hal Roach , and Walter Wanger . In 1948,

5103-713: The sometimes confusing equation of studio with production company in industry slang. Five large companies: RKO Radio Pictures , 20th Century Fox , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came to be known as the Big Five, the majors, or the Studios in trade publications such as Variety , and their management structures and practices collectively came to be known as the studio system . The Little 3 Although they owned few or no theaters to guarantee sales of their films, Universal Pictures , Columbia Pictures , and United Artists also fell under these rubrics, making

5184-569: The studio system. Filmmakers and producers such as Mike Judge , Adam Sandler , Jim Jarmusch , Robert Rodriguez , Steven Soderbergh , Quentin Tarantino , Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater made films that pushed boundaries in ways the studios were then reluctant to do. In response to these films, many distributed by mini-studios like Miramax , the majors created their own in-house mini-studios meant to focus on edgier, independent content. Focus Features

5265-410: The studio that Splash would be filmed more quickly and cheaply than the other film, which eventually fell through. Howard turned down directing Footloose and Mr. Mom to direct Splash . Several established actors such as Chevy Chase , Dudley Moore , Bill Murray , and John Travolta were considered for the lead role before the producers decided on the then lesser-known Tom Hanks . Hanks

5346-595: The studios increased in size they began to rely on production companies like J. J. Abrams ' Bad Robot to handle many of the creative and physical production details of their feature films. Instead, the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for their films (generally made by their affiliated production companies). With the decreasing cost of CGI and visual effects , many studios sold large chunks of their once-massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles

5427-546: The top of box office receipts, beating out all the other major film studios by 1988. On April 13, 1988, Touchstone became a unit of Walt Disney Pictures under newly appointed president Ricardo Mestres. On October 23, 1990, Disney formed Touchwood Pacific Partners I to supplant the Silver Screen Partners partnership series as their movie studios' primary funding source. With several production companies getting out of film production or closing shop by December 2, 1988,

5508-491: The truth about herself after an upcoming dignitary dinner to welcome the President . Meanwhile, Kornbluth, realizing that Madison is the mermaid he encountered, pursues the couple, trying to expose her by splashing her with water. His first attempts are unsuccessful, and Kornbluth ends up with multiple injuries. Finally, he infiltrates the dignitary dinner, soaking Madison with a hose and successfully unmasking her identity. Madison

5589-507: Was "Silver Wind". Incoming Disney CEO Michael Eisner and film chief Jeffrey Katzenberg considered renaming the label to "Hollywood Pictures", which went on to become a separate Disney film label on February 1, 1989. In 1986, Down and Out in Beverly Hills was another early success for Touchstone and was Disney's first R-rated film. It was followed in 1987 by Disney's first PG-13-rated film, Adventures in Babysitting . Disney increased

5670-421: Was cast as Madison, the role had been previously turned down by P.J. Soles , Tatum O'Neal , Michelle Pfeiffer , Julia Louis-Dreyfus , Melanie Griffith , Diane Lane , Kathleen Turner , and Sharon Stone . Lane chose to do Streets of Fire and The Cotton Club instead. Principal photography , which ran from March 1 to June 30, 1983, took place in Los Angeles, New York City, and Gordon Cay, an isle in

5751-471: Was cast because Ganz and Mandel believed that he would be great as an "every man" character. According to Howard, the studio would not give him a green light. Murray turned down the part as he wanted to move away from comedies and do serious films instead. Steve Guttenberg also auditioned for the role. Michael Keaton was offered the role, but he declined so he could star in Mr. Mom instead. Before Daryl Hannah

5832-418: Was considered a potential Star Wars -level success by the production company. In late 1982, Disney vice president of production Tom Wilhite announced that they would produce and release more mature films under a new brand. Wilhite elaborated to The New York Times : "We won't get into horror or exploitive sex, but using a non-Disney name will allow us wider latitude in the maturity of the subject matter and

5913-454: Was created by Universal Pictures and Fox Searchlight was created by 20th Century Fox for this purpose. Splash (film) Splash is a 1984 American romantic fantasy comedy film directed by Ron Howard , from a screenplay by Lowell Ganz , Babaloo Mandel , and Bruce Jay Friedman , and a story by Friedman and producer Brian Grazer . The film stars Tom Hanks , Daryl Hannah , John Candy , and Eugene Levy . Its plot involves

5994-425: Was dubbed Touchmark Comics , echoing the Touchstone brand used for films and television. Proposed titles included Enigma by Peter Milligan and Sebastian O by Grant Morrison . The brand got as far as a promotional booklet given out at the 1991 San Diego Comic-Con . Before the idea could progress further, however, the so-called "Disney Implosion" (the result of poor sales and aggressive overexpansion) forced

6075-435: Was highly flammable, and sets and backlots were and still are very flammable, which is why film studios built in the early-to-mid 20th century have water towers to facilitate firefighting . Water towers "somewhat inexplicably" evolved into "a most potent symbol ... of movie studios in general." Halfway through the 1950s, with television proving to be a lucrative enterprise not destined to disappear any time soon—as many in

6156-485: Was initially set up at United Artists , but Brian Grazer decided to take the film elsewhere and took it to The Ladd Company , but Alan Ladd Jr. eventually passed on it. According to the documentary on the Splash: 20th Anniversary Edition DVD in 2004, producer Brian Grazer had pitched the film to numerous studios but was turned down repeatedly until Walt Disney Productions , then headed by Ron W. Miller , agreed to produce

6237-463: Was more in line with the earlier drafts of the original film. Jillian Bell and Channing Tatum were set to star as a female human and a merman, respectively. Tatum was also set to produce the remake through his production company, Free Association, along with Reid Carolin and Peter Kieran, while Howard and Grazer will also produce from Imagine Entertainment with Anna Culp as the executive producer and Marja-Lewis Ryan writing. As of January 2019 ,

6318-399: Was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, which was among the largest and most famous of the studio lots. In most cases, portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions. Some studios offer tours of their backlots , while Universal Pictures allows visitors to its adjacent Universal Studios Hollywood theme park to take

6399-483: Was reportedly in the early stages of considering Touchstone's fate, including a possible sale. Following Disney's decision not to renew their long-standing deal with Jerry Bruckheimer Films in 2013, producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that he insisted on revitalizing the Touchstone label for production. Disney was uninterested, with studio chairman Alan Horn admitting that Touchstone's output had been reduced to only distributing DreamWorks' films as those films were in

6480-468: Was well received by critics and is considered to be one of the best films of 1984. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A perfectly light, warmly funny romantic comedy that's kept afloat by Ron Howard's unobtrusive direction and charming performances from Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah." Metacritic , which uses

6561-507: Was with her. Realizing that he still loves Madison, Allen confronts the guilt-ridden Kornbluth who, having been rejected by his colleagues despite proving the existence of mermaids, agrees to help rescue her. Kornbluth, accompanied by Allen and Freddie impersonating Swedish scientists, enter the lab and smuggle Madison outside. Freddie stays behind to be arrested in Allen's place, while Kornbluth unsuccessfully tries to stop military troops from catching

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