Touchstone Pictures

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The current logo for Touchstone Pictures films since 2002

Touchstone Pictures (also known as Touchstone Films in its early years, is one of several alternate film labels of The Walt Disney Company, established in 1984. Its releases typically feature more mature themes than those under the Walt Disney Pictures banner. (such as PG-13 and R rated fare.)

Touchstone Pictures is merely a legal fiction and does not exist as a separate company: the two de facto companies behind it are Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group and Walt Disney Pictures and Television.

1 Background
2 List of Touchstone Pictures features
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

Touchstone Pictures' first release was The Black Hole (1979), a science fiction film that sparked controversy due to the fact that it was the first Disney production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed its first PG-rated film, Take Down—a non-Disney production—almost a year before the release of The Black Hole.) Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the 1981 film Condorman, 1982's Tron and 1983's Never Cry Wolf and Trenchcoat. The latter film attracted major criticism for including adult themes that were considered inappropriate for a Disney film.^[1] The controversy over Trenchcoat is generally considered the catalyst that later sparked the creation of Touchstone Pictures. One title considered for the new company was "Hyperion Pictures," named after the location of the studio in the 1930s before the move to Burbank. Eventually, Hyperion would become the name of Disney's publishing arm.

Started by then Disney CEO Ron W. Miller in 1984, Touchstone's first release was Splash, a huge hit for Walt Disney Productions. Splash included brief nudity on the part of star Daryl Hannah and occasional language, earning a PG-rating. Yet another Disney film label was started in 1990, Hollywood Pictures, with the release of Arachnophobia (film).

The Touchstone films became a top source of income for Disney during the 1980s and 1990s. Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, came in January of 1986 and was another smash. Ruthless People followed in April of 1986 and was also huge. Both of these pictures starred Bette Midler who had signed a six picture deal with Disney and became a major film star again with these hits as well as Beaches and Outrageous Fortune. Some other well-known Touchstone Pictures releases includes Pretty Woman, Sister Act and Armageddon.

Many films from the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group have during the course of their prior release dates been shifting between the Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures names before finally settling for one. Examples include; Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Dick Tracy, The Rocketeer, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Santa Clause, Remember the Titans, Sweet Home Alabama, Bringing Down the House, National Treasure, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The completely separate television production company, Touchstone Television Productions, LLC (now ABC Television Studio), currently produces the smash hits Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy , as well as Scrubs.