MGM and Danjaq file for injunction against NBC Universal for 'Section 6' knockoff movie

05-Apr-2014 • Bond News

James Bond's owners, MGM and Danjaq, fired off a lawsuit against NBC Universal on Wednesday (2nd April 2014) complaining of copyright infringement of the rival studios "Section 6" project, which in the lion's eyes is a blatant 'knockoff' of the James Bond franchise.

Bond's studio has been monitoring the situation for months and had seen an early draft of the screenplay, based around an MI6 agent after the war, but when NBC Universal hired a director and cast the lead role, the suit was filed to try and put a stop to the film with an injunction.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the MGM suit also names screenwriter Aaron Berg.

"This lawsuit concerns a motion picture project, in active development, featuring a daring, tuxedo-clad British secret agent, employed by âHis Majestyâs Secret Service,â with a âlicense to kill,â and a 00 (double-O) secret agent number on a mission to save England from the diabolical plot of a megalomaniacal villain."

"Most moviegoers would assume from that description alone that this lawsuit concerns the next James Bond picture. It does not. This lawsuit is instead about a James Bond knockoff that defendant Universal is readying for production, based on a screenplay that defendant Berg wrote."

"Section 6", to be directed by Joe Cornish ("Attack the Block") and starring Jack OâConnell ("Unbroken"), "misappropriates from the James Bond works far beyond the signature aspects of James Bond," and "in detail nearly every aspect of the characters, plots dialogue, themes. setting, mood and other key elements of the copyrighted James Bond literary works and motion pictures," according to the suit.

Although the screenplay is based on historical facts, MGM and Danjaq claim that the "core elements are fictional," and that "the dialog and relationships between the characters are strikingly out of place and years ahead of their time for a story set in 1918."