Background[]
The Cannon Group, Inc. was a film company that produced low-to medium-budget films from October 23, 1967 to 1993. The company was founded by Dennis Friedland and Christopher C. Dewey. In 1979, Cannon was sold to Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who had produced a few Israeli films such as Operation Thunderbolt (Mivtsa Yonatan, lit. "Operation Jonathan") and the hit teen comedy Lemon Popsicle (Eskimo Limon) before coming to the United States that year. During that year, they bought controlling interest in Cannon Films and forged a business model of buying "bottom-barrel" scripts and putting them into production. In 1989, Cannon was acquired by Giancarlo Parretti and rechristened as Pathé Communications. Parretti later acquired MGM/UA Communications Co. in 1990 which became part of "MGM-Pathé Communications Co.". Golan left the company to form a new venture, 21st Century Film Corporation. In 1993, Cannon was folded into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Today, most of the library of the American arm of Cannon Films is held by MGM, who also owns home entertainment, international television, and ThisTV rights. Warner Bros. holds the North American theatrical and home entertainment rights to their co-productions with Cannon, such as Cobra, Over the Top, Masters of the Universe, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (for which WB also owns worldwide video rights). North American television rights to the Cannon library are held by Paramount Pictures, with distribution licensed to Trifecta Entertainment & Media.
1st Logo (May 8, 1971-1984)[]
Nickname: "The Cannon Hexagon", "Multicolored Hexagon"
Logo: Against a black background, a white multi-lined hexagon consisting of a "C" and an arrow pointing to the right is wiped in. Then, the "C" turns blue and the arrow turns purple, and the hexagon becomes solid as well. It zooms out to the left, and the arrow splits off to the opposite side and leaves the text "THE CANNON GROUP, INCORPORATED" behind. Then, the "C" quickly meets up with the arrow and wipes the text away.
Variants:
- On New Year's Evil, the logo starts at the point where the hexagon zooms out to the left.
- Sometimes, the arrow would remain white.
- On Fury on Wheels (1984), after the logo's animation, the hexagon slides down to the bottom-right. The credit:
CHRISTOPHER C.DEWEY fades in.
and
DENNIS FRIEDLAND
present
FX/SFX: Simple graphics.
Music/Sounds: Charles Williams' "Fanfare for an Ambassador". In most cases, it's silent.
Music/Sounds Variant: On at least one film, it uses the theme from the 4th logo due to a sloppy reverse plaster.
Availability: Rare.
- It's seen on only a few Cannon films from the era, as most (including Northville Cemetery Massacre) had no logo or contained only an in-credit notice.
- A few films where this appears include The Happy Hooker, The Alaska Wilderness Adventure, Hot T-Shirts (after the 3rd logo), New Year's Evil and Fury on Wheels.
Editor's Note: The quite loud fanfare and dark color scheme may startle many first-time viewers, though it's fairly tame compared to the third logo.
2nd Logo (In-credit; September 12, 1980-March 20, 1987)[]
Nickname: "The Cannon Hexagon II", "In-Credit Hexagon"
Logo: On the film's opening titles are the "C" and arrow from before, along with the text "THE CANNON GROUP (INC.) PRESENTS". The font, color, background, and positioning of the logo depended on the film.
Variant: On The Barbarians, the logo is animated, in that "THE CANNON GROUP INC." positions itself from the top of the screen, the C/arrow zooms out, and "presents" slides in.
FX/SFX: None except for the Barbarians variant.
Music/Sounds: None or the main title music.
Availability: Extremely rare. Other than the The Barbarians, this appeared on Treasure of the Four Crowns, Schizoid, The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, and the international cut of Lifeforce (which is the most commonly seen version of it).
3rd Logo (March 2, 1984-May 17, 1985)[]
Nickname: "The Cannon Hexagon III", "The Hexagon from Hell/of Doom", "The Creepy Hexagon", "That Hexagon"
Logo: Against a black background, the C and arrow from before, in blue, come together in the center of the screen. As this happens, "THE CANNON GROUP, INC.", in white, appears below. The hexagon shines brightly at an angle from the top-left to bottom-right, and after a moment, a bright flash occurs, and the hexagon turns white and quickly zooms away into a starfield.
Variants:
- On some films, the starfield is darkened to the point where it cannot be seen.
- On some trailers for films such as Ordeal by Innocence, the logo fades out after the hexagon shines.
FX/SFX: The lighting effects, the hexagon zooming out.
Music/Sounds: An eerie wailing sound, followed by a "whoosh" as the hexagon zooms back. In other cases, it's silent or uses the opening theme of the film.
Music/Sounds Variant: On the shortened trailer variant, it quickly fades out before the "whoosh" sound plays.
Availability: Rare, as this logo was only used for over a year. Sometimes, this was used in tandem with the next logo.
- It debuted on Over the Brooklyn Bridge and Sahara (both released on the same day) and last appeared on Grace Quigley.
- Also seen on Exterminator 2, Missing in Action, Ninja III: The Domination, The Ambassador, Maria's Lover and other releases of the era.
Editor's Note: The dark atmosphere, creepy noises and the sudden, quick zooming out along with flashing of the Hexagon at the end make it a nightmare-inducing logo.
4th Logo (June 13, 1984-February 17, 1994)[]
Nicknames: "The Cannon Hexagon IV", "CGI Hexagon"
Logo: On a black background, the "C" and arrow, which now look more metallic, appear and meet in the center of the screen. "CANNON", in a bronzish color, fades in below, and the hexagon shines. Then, the "CANNON" text fades out as the segments of the hexagon fly toward the screen one by one.
Trivia: On the 1998 MGM DVD of Lifeforce, this logo is presented in 4:3, while the movie itself is shown in a non-anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 presentation.
Variants:
- A shortened version exists that doesn't show the flying segments.
- At the beginning of the Dutch film The Assault, the "flying segment" animation plays in reverse. Then, it freezes as it crossfades to the text:
THE CANNON GROUP
presenteert - On Invaders from Mars, the hexagon is in a more silver-like color.
- On films released in France, after the usual animation, the words "CANNON France présente", with "France" in script, zoom in upside down, then flip over. "Cannon" is in blue, "France" is in red, and "présente" is in white. The music cuts in a couple of seconds later in this variant.
- In cinemas, some longer films would be split up into two parts. The logo would play before the interval (or intermission) with "INTERVAL" written below instead. Then, after the interval, the logo would play again, with "CANNON CINEMAS PRESENT" below.
FX/SFX: The hexagon coming together, the text fading, the individual parts zooming out. Great CGI for the time.
Music/Sounds: A dramatic synth tune with three quick drum hits as the text appears. A flourish produced by a string instrument of some sort is heard, and another reverberated drum fill as the logo ends. In some cases, it's silent or uses the opening theme of the film.
Music/Sound Variants:
- The short version has the theme fade out early before the last flourish.
- A version exists with Don LaFontaine saying "The Cannon Group presents a Golan-Globus production."
- A low-tone version exists on a Paramount Channel France broadcast of King Solomon's Mines and the French ESC Editions Blu-ray of Runaway Train.
- On a Bulgarian release of Rescue Me, the Cannon Video music is used.
- The Cannon France variant has a pinging sound playing after the music.
Availability: Common. Seen on films from the period.
- It debuted on The Naked Face and last appeared on Chain of Command.
- It was also seen on the UK theatrical release of The BFG, but all other prints use the ITV-aired version.
- It makes a surprise appearance on current prints of Hot T-Shirts preceding the 1st logo.
- The films they co-produced with Warner Bros. or had distributed by TriStar Pictures, use in-credit notices instead.
Editor's Note: This logo is just as well-known as the movies that it preceded.