Danjaq

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Danjaq, LLC (formerly Danjaq S.A.) 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 popular film franchise. EON Productions, the production company responsible for producing the James Bond films, is a subsidiary of Danjaq.

History

Founding

Danjaq was founded by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman after the release of the first James Bond film Dr. No, in 1962, to insure all future films in the series. The new company was to be called Danjaq S.A., a combination of Broccoli and Saltzman's respective wives' names (Dana Broccoli and Jacqueline Saltzman). Also in 1962 Danjaq began its association with United Artists.^[1]

Financial difficulties

Due to financial difficulties, Saltzman later sold his share of Danjaq to United Artists in 1975. Beginning with 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, Danjaq began to share half the copyright and interests with United Artists Corporation, which is publicly the case still today, although the copyrights to the 2006 version of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace (2008) are shared with the series' new theatrical distributor, Columbia Pictures.

Some sources, notably John Cork (the author of a number of books about Bond's film history, and a producer of many documentaries created for the films' Special Edition DVD releases), claim that Broccoli purchased this 50% stake of Danjaq back from UA in the mid-1980s. It has been further suggested that MGM/UA have an exclusive distribution deal with Danjaq that is far more lucrative than when the shares were originally owned by Broccoli and Saltzman.^[2]

Copyright status

Although the trademarks for material related to the Bond films are held by Danjaq, the copyright to the film properties (beginning with Dr. No and aside from the 2006 Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace produced and co-copyrighted with Columbia Pictures) are shared by Danjaq and United Artists Corporation. The trademarks associated with the James Bond books and other non-film publications are held by Ian Fleming Publications.

Films made outside the control of Danjaq

Some James Bond films have been made outside the control of Danjaq, including a spoof called Casino Royale (1967) because the rights to that book had been sold prior to the EON/Danjaq deal, and a serious James Bond film called Never Say Never Again (1983), a remake of the Danjaq film Thunderball; the latter was made possible due to a legal dispute involving Kevin McClory, one of the credited co-writers of Thunderball, who was awarded the film rights to the novel in a 1963 settlement with Ian Fleming.

References