Batjac Productions
| Industry | Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1952 (as Wayne/Fellows Productions) 1956 (as Batjac Productions) |
| Founder |
John Wayne Robert Fellows |
|
Key people
|
John Wayne (Founder) |
| Products | Motion pictures, television programs |
Batjac Productions is an independent film production company founded by John Wayne in the early 1950s as a vehicle for Wayne to produce as well as star in movies. Its first release was Big Jim McLain with Warner Brothers in 1952, and its final film was also with Warner Brothers, McQ, in 1974. After the actor’s death, his son, Michael Wayne managed and owned the company for over 30 years before he died in 2003, when his wife, Gretchen took over as owner and president.
Wayne and producer Robert Fellows founded Batjac in 1952 as Wayne/Fellows Productions. When Fellows left the company several years later, Wayne renamed the corporation after a fictitious trading company mentioned in the 1948 film Wake of the Red Witch. The company name in Wake of the Red Witch was spelled Batjak, but Wayne's secretary misspelled it as Batjac on the corporation papers, and Wayne let it stand. Having his own company gave Wayne artistic control over the films he made.
Among Batjac's productions: The Alamo, Hondo, Cahill U.S. Marshal, Big Jake, , The Green Berets, Seven Men from Now, and McQ.
The most famous of all Batjac's films is Wayne's 1960 version of The Alamo, a project he had planned for several years. It was an account of the battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution of 1836. A labor of love for Wayne, The Alamo cost Wayne much of his personal fortune.
Because of a production/distribution deal with Warner Bros. and United Artists, Batjac was allowed to retain all rights to four Wayne films: the WB-distributed The High and the Mighty, Hondo, Island in the Sky, and the UA-distributed . It also held full copyright ownership in several non-John Wayne movies, Seven Men from Now, Man in the Vault, Ring of Fear, Plunder of the Sun, Track of the Cat, China Doll, Escort West and Gun the Man Down.
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