The Sign of Four (1983 film)

The Sign of Four 1983 is a British television film directed by Desmond Davis and starring Ian Richardson and David Healy. The film is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novel of the same name, the second novel to feature Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

That was the fly in our ointment. Initially, an unseen fly. You see, when Sy Weintraub was planning the films, he was unaware that the copyright on the Holmes stories was about to expire in England and he had to go through a great deal of legal negotiations with the Conan Doyle estate in order to gain permission to use them. However, he was totally ignorant of Granadas plans to film a series with Jeremy Brett...Weintraub was furious, because hed paid a lot of money to get permission from the estate and here was Granada saying, Thank you but were going to do it. So Weintraub took them to court. He had a very good case, apparently but eventually there was an out of court settlement for an extraordinary sum of money something like two million pounds which was enough for Weintraub to cover his costs on both The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles, and make a profit, too. And so he wrapped the project up.

Source: Wikipedia