Danjaq

Last updated
Danjaq, LLC
Company type Holding company
Industry Entertainment
Film
Founded1962;62 years ago (1962)
Founder Albert R. Broccoli
Harry Saltzman
Headquarters,
Key people
Michael G. Wilson
Barbara Broccoli
Products James Bond films
OwnersMichael G. Wilson
Barbara Broccoli
Website www.eon.co.uk

Danjaq, LLC (formerly Danjaq S.A. and Danjaq, Inc.) is the holding company responsible for the copyright and trademarks to the characters, elements, and other material related to James Bond on screen. It is currently owned and managed by the family of Albert R. Broccoli, the co-initiator of the film franchise.

Contents

History

Founding

Danjaq S.A. was founded by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman after the release of the first James Bond film Dr. No , in 1962, to ensure control of all future films in the series. The new company was named Danjaq from combining the names of Broccoli and Saltzman's respective wives' (Dana Broccoli and Jacqueline Saltzman). [1] The company was originally domiciled in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland, hence the appearance of "S.A." letters in the first legal name of the company. [2] In 1962, Danjaq began its association with United Artists. [3]

Ownership

Due to a series of failed business interests, Harry Saltzman's personal financial difficulties forced him to sell his 50% share of Danjaq to United Artists in 1975. [4]

In 1986, Albert and Dana Broccoli acquired United Artists' 50% stake in the company and so assumed complete control of Danjaq. [5] John Cork claims that in exchange for the sale, MGM/UA received an exclusive distribution deal with Danjaq that is far more lucrative than when the shares were originally owned by Broccoli and Saltzman. [6]

Danjaq's legal domicile was changed from Switzerland to Delaware in October 1992. [7] The Delaware company's legal name was Danjaq, Inc. The company was converted to a limited liability company in January 1997. In 1999, as part of a settlement of a lawsuit between MGM and Sony, Sony acquired MGM's interest in the Spider-Man film rights, while Danjaq bought out the rights to the novel Casino Royale . [8]

Following the death of Albert Broccoli in 1996 and Dana Broccoli in 2004, control of Danjaq was passed to Dana's son (and Albert's step-son), Michael G. Wilson. [9]

Although the trademarks for material related to the Bond films are held by Danjaq, the copyrights to the first twenty film properties are co-owned by Danjaq LLC and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (the technical successor to subsidiary United Artists). The copyrights to Casino Royale , Quantum of Solace , Skyfall and Spectre , are shared between Danjaq LLC, MGM, and Columbia Pictures.

Films made outside the control of Danjaq

Two Bond films have been made outside the control of Danjaq, the first was the 1967 film Casino Royale , with David Niven as Bond; the second was the 1983 film Never Say Never Again , a remake of Thunderball . Never Say Never Again was the result of a legal dispute involving Kevin McClory, one of the credited co-writers of the story used for the novel Thunderball , who was awarded the film rights to the novel in a 1963 settlement with Ian Fleming.

Litigation

Danjaq LLC v. James Bond Ltd

On 13 July 2009, Danjaq applied under s.69(1)(b) of the Companies Act 2006 for a change of name of James Bond Ltd, which had been registered since 12 June 2009. James Bond Ltd was ordered by the adjudicator at the Company Names Tribunal to change its name and to not register another company with an offending name. The respondent was also ordered to contribute toward Danjaq's costs. [10]

Related Research Articles

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SPECTRE is a fictional organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, as well as the films and video games based on those novels. Led by criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the international organisation first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962). SPECTRE is not aligned with any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical. The presence of former Gestapo members in the organisation can be considered as a sign of Fleming's warnings about Nazi fugitives after the Second World War, as first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1954). In the novels, SPECTRE begins as a small group of criminals, but in the films it is depicted as a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base capable of replacing the Soviet SMERSH.

<i>Never Say Never Again</i> 1983 James Bond film directed by Irvin Kershner

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert R. Broccoli</span> American film producer (1909–1996)

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<i>Thunderball</i> (film) 1965 James Bond spy film by Terence Young

Thunderball is a 1965 spy film and the fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham devised from a story conceived by Kevin McClory, Whittingham, and Fleming. It was the third and final Bond film to be directed by Terence Young, with its screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.

<i>The Spy Who Loved Me</i> (film) 1977 James Bond spy film by Lewis Gilbert

The Spy Who Loved Me is a 1977 spy film, the tenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. The film co-stars Barbara Bach and Curt Jürgens and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. The screenplay was by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum, with an uncredited rewrite by Tom Mankiewicz.

<i>Dr. No</i> (film) 1962 James Bond film directed by Terence Young

Dr. No is a 1962 spy film directed by Terence Young. It is the first film in the James Bond series. Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman and Jack Lord, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather from the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, a partnership that continued until 1975. It was followed by From Russia with Love in 1963. In the film, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. Julius No, who is plotting to disrupt an early American space launch from Cape Canaveral with a radio beam weapon.

The James Bond film series is a British series of spy films based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond, "007", who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. It is one of the longest continually running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present. In that time, Eon Productions has produced 25 films as of 2021, most of them at Pinewood Studios. With a combined gross of over $7 billion, the films produced by Eon constitute the fifth-highest-grossing film series. Six actors have portrayed 007 in the Eon series, the latest being Daniel Craig.

<i>The Battle for Bond</i> Book by Robert Sellers

The Battle for Bond (2007), by Robert Sellers, is a cinema history book of how the literary character James Bond metamorphosed to the cinema James Bond. The book details the collaboration among film producer Kevin McClory, novelist Ian Fleming, screenwriter Jack Whittingham and others to create the film Thunderball.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond:

References

  1. "Interview with James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli & Hilary Saltzman". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  2. "Zefix - Central Business Name Index - Search business name" . Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  3. Judge McKeown (27 August 2001). "Danjaq et al. v. Sony Corporation et al" (PDF). United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2006. in 1962... Danjaq teamed up with United Artists to produce Bond films.
  4. Reuter (25 April 1978). "Movie Producer Loses Lawsuit". Ottawa Citizen . p. 66.
  5. Danjaq, S.A. v. Pathe Communications Corporation, No. 91-55878. (Oct 6 1992) United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
  6. Cork, John (1996). "The Road to GoldenEye". Goldeneye. 4.
  7. "Companies matching 'Danjaq' :: OpenCorporates" . Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  8. "Past 007 Attempts". MI6, Home of James Bond. September 14, 2004. Archived from the original on October 10, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
  9. Danjaq LLC v. Sony Corp., 263 F.3d 942 (9th Cir. 2001)
  10. Danjaq LLC v. James Bond Ltd Retrieved 23 September 2014