EON Productions

From Free net encyclopedia

EON Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company operates from Pinewood Studios and is a subsidiary of Danjaq, LLC, the holding company responsible for the copyright and trademarks to the Bond characters and elements on screen.

EON was started by film producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961. In 1975 after nine Bond films, Harry Saltzman sold his shares of Danjaq to United Artists (the then-current Bond series distributor). In 1996 Albert R. Broccoli died, although EON Productions is still owned by the Broccoli family, specifically Albert R. Broccoli's daughter, Barbara Broccoli, and his stepson, Michael G. Wilson, who are the current producers of the James Bond films.

The trademarks for the film properties (beginning with Dr. No) are copyrighted by Danjaq and United Artists Corporation, whose parent company, the Sony-MGM consortium, distributes the Bond series.

Since their first film, Dr. No in 1962, there has only been one film made by EON Productions that wasn't a part of the Bond series; Call Me Bwana starring Bob Hope.

In 2000, EON productions served a cease-and-desist letter to Cheapass Games to get them to stop using the name "Mr. Bond" in the title of their game Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond. In 2004, the game was reissued under the title James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game.

In 2004 Electronic Arts developed a video game with the James Bond licence titled Everything or Nothing, which was thought to be named after the production company. Up until his death, Albert R. Broccoli had always denied that "EON" stood for anything specifically.

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