Morgan Creek Entertainment

Background

Morgan Creek Entertainment Group (formerly known as Morgan Creek Productions) is a production company founded by former auto import worker James G. Robinson in 1987. The name of the company comes from the 1944 movie The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Some of its most successful films include the Ace Ventura films and the Young Guns films. Its films were distributed (at least in North America) by 20th Century Fox from 1988-1990 (however, Renegades and Coup De Ville were from Universal and Major League was from Paramount), Warner Bros. from 1991-2004 and Universal from 2005-2011 (Warner distributed Ace Ventura, Jr. from 2009, international rights to Dream House, whilst Universal had US rights, and All Eyez on Me was distributed by Summit Entertainment). The rights were acquired by Revolution Studios in 2014, with sales handled by Miramax. Video rights now rest with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

1st Logo (August 12, 1988-September 28, 1990)

Nicknames: "The Creek", "2-D Creek", "Cheesy Creek"

Logo: Against a black background, a curvy blue line (intended to be a creek) moves across the screen. The camera then zooms out to reveal a tall black rectangle against a blue background with the curvy line cut out near the bottom. "MORGAN" is seen on top, and "CREEK" is seen on the bottom, with a line placed above and below the words.

Variant: On the theatrical trailer and TV spots for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the blue background is darker. The movie itself would use the next logo.

FX/SFX: The zooming.

Music/Sounds: A sound of a river streaming down with a rising synth tune that ends with two chime bells. Most of the time however, it's silent, or has the opening/ending theme of the movie playing over it. Enemies: A Love Story does not have the river sounds, but does have the rising theme and the bells.

Availability: Uncommon. It was seen on the Young Guns series, Skin Deep, Clive Barker's Nightbreed, The Exorcist III and Pacific Heights. At the time, most of its films were released by 20th Century Fox, though on current prints, owned by Revolution/Miramax, (with the exception of Young Guns, owned by Lionsgate via Vestron), the Fox logo is cut out, either due to expired distribution deals, or releasing agreements that did not extend past theatrical release. The Fox logo is also edited out on Vestron Video's release of Young Guns as well as on the original home video releases of Skin Deep and Clive Barker's Nightbreed, which were released by Media Home Entertainment. The Fox/Morgan Creek logo combo can however be seen on video releases from CBS/Fox or Fox Video such as Pacific Heights, The Exorcist III, and Young Guns II as well as some streaming prints of Nightbreed (the theatrical cut). It also appears after the end credits of Renegades and Coup De Ville (the former film would have the river and bell sounds). Don't expect to see this on Major League or Dead Ringers.

Editor's Note: The animation of the logo is too simple and bland, especially since there were movie logos of the time that were better than this.

2nd Logo (June 14, 1991-November 9, 2001)

Provided ID could not be validated.

Nicknames: "The Creek V", "CGI Creek IV", "3-D Creek IV"

Logo: On a black background, the camera eases by with a shimmering river with the blue land shining by as the screen scrolls past the river until revealing it's on the box, like the past three logos. As the blue box tilts backwards, the words "MORGAN" and "CREEK" fly in (like the effects of the company name seen on the 1991 logo). The logo shines one more time before fading out.

Variant: The television version has the logo easing out.

FX/SFX: Another redo of the previous logos with impressive animation and elements that callback to the 1988 (with the extra river) and 1991 (with the company name's appearance) logos, and the issue with the squished box has finally disappeared.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme to the film. The TV version has an abridged version of the fanfare from the 2nd and 3rd logos.

Availability: Uncommon so far. Made its debut on All Eyez on Me, Morgan Creek's first theatrical release in six years. The television version is seen on season 2 of The Exorcist.

Editor's Note: A well-done logo with elements incorporated from the first two logos.