Lucy Liu cast as Watson in CBS' Sherlock Holmes show

[23skidoo]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

---

I wonder if this might doom Elemetary, too? Quean was making efforts to change the location, race and gender of characters, and apparently that didn't keep the lawyers at bay:

Yeah, but Quean (which I'd never heard of till that report came out) isn't based on a widely known concept that many assume is in the public domain (as the makers of TNG found out was not the case). Elementary is a new version of an established story without changing names, etc. Same as if two competing Frankenstein or Dracula series were created. I can't see there being any legal recourse for the BBC, anymore than for the makers of the Downey movie.

It's not the same scenario than if, say, a US network commissioned a TV series about a British secret agent named James Gunn Agent 666 who has a license to kill and who travels the world womanizing and killing off supervillians. Eon Productions, owners of James Bond, would take umbrage. And the descriptions I've read about Quean offer the same kind of similarities with the Girl movies, so the legal whip cracking is not surprising. I was expecting to see the same thing happen with The Hunger Games, which is almost identical in concept to Battle Royale, but the powers that be have made it clear the similarities were coincidental, so last I heard the Japanese rights holders of Battle Royale haven't been making any noises. Yet. We'll wait and see if Hunger Games enters the $500 million club or not.

Alex

[Greg Cox]

23skidoo wrote:

---

Yeah, but Quean (which I'd never heard of till that report came out) isn't based on a widely known concept that many assume is in the public domain (as the makers of TNG found out was not the case). Elementary is a new version of an established story without changing names, etc. Same as if two competing Frankenstein or Dracula series were created. I can't see there being any legal recourse for the BBC, anymore than for the makers of the Downey movie.

Exactly. It's not like any of the new versions invented Holmes and Watson, or even the idea of setting them in the present-day.

[Temis the Vorta]

I don't think the BBC has any valid case here, either. But a corporation doesn't need to have a good legal case in order to make trouble. All they need is money to pay their lawyers and the will to pursue legal action. They can make enough trouble to shut down a production simply because nobody wants the headache of dealing with that shit.

So this is less about whether the BBC has a valid case than whether they have the resources to make as much trouble as Sony could have. That's what I find doubtful.

However, CBS has just renewed a ton of shows, and they have a fair number of pilots in contention, which means any single pilot is going to have a big uphill battle to get a series order. If the BBC made any trouble at all, that could be enough to get CBS to pass over Elementary in favor of something that won't be any legal bother at all.

[Collingwood Nick]

Dream wrote:

---

http://www.tvline.com/2012/02/lucy-l...es-elementary/

Seriously, what the hell? Why make Watson female? This looks like it is going to be so stupid.

Because the script writers are absolutely terrified of homosexual tension. Mark my words, Holmes is going to 'do' Watson

[Forbin]

But not till season five, so they can stretch out the sexual tension.

[Temis the Vorta]

If only they'd put this on the CW! Then the hoyay would not only be necessary but mandatory!

Of course Holmes and Watson would look like the Salvatore Brothers, but you can't have everything. Hmm, there's a thought...what if they were brothers?

[Nerys Myk]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

---

If only they'd put this on the CW! Then the hoyay would not only be necessary but mandatory!

Of course Holmes and Watson would look like the Salvatore Brothers, but you can't have everything. Hmm, there's a thought...what if they were brothers?

Sherlock has enough brothers, as it is.

[Starkers]

Hmm...

Well I guess it's possible that this isn't his Sherlock outfit, and is just Miller's regular clothes, and I guess there's only so many different looks for a guy, but still if you were trying to distance yourselves from accusations of ripping off the BBC, would you really dress your guy that much like Cumberbatch?

[Captaindemotion]

^ I don't know if it's all that similar. Cumberbatch's distinctive coat is a lot longer. The scarf is a bit reminiscent, I suppose, but a lot of guys wear scarves.

[Starkers]

Oh I know it's a bit of a stretch, but given the BBC were already making noises, don't you think it might have been prudent to avoid any similarities, and whilst lots of blokes wear a scarf, they don't neccesarily all wear them the same way.

[Allyn Gibson]

Moffat is "annoyed." Elementary could, if it's not good, damage his "brand."

Really? Sherlock is a brand? We're talking about a series that has six episodes, and will have three more eighteen months from now. Some brand.

And Moffat seems not to have considered the possibility that Elementary might even be good. Though in that case, he might protest that Elementary's producers took his idea and eclipsed him with it. But would that be such a bad thing? It would force Moffat to up his game.

[Starkers]

Does anyone seriously expect this to be better than Sherlock?

Some interesting points from that article though...

They've just decided to go off and do one of their own, having been turned down by us to do an adaptation of our version.

So clearly they are trying to ride Sherlock's coat tails. Which I think we all knew anyway.

"We don't own Sherlock Holmes," he said. "We don't even own the idea of updating it. It's been done before.
"I hope they know their Sherlock Holmes very, very well indeed because we know what's in our show and wasn't in the original.
"So if we did discover our material had made it into somebody else's show we would have a problem with that. If there is no such incidence of that, then there's nothing we can object to."

Seems reasonable, they know they don't own Sherlock Holmes, but they do know what they've added to it.

I don't see why Moffat isn't allowed to be annoyed at this? Remember he's already seen one of his shows butchered by American networks.

[Beagleman]

He kinda looks like a cross between Cumberbatch's Sherlock and House.

[Allyn Gibson]

Starkers wrote:

---

Does anyone seriously expect this to be better than Sherlock?

I don't think it's automatically going to be bad, which is what Moffat seems to think and what much of Sherlock fandom I've encountered definitely thinks.

[Temis the Vorta]

If Moffat has an infringement case, he should call his lawyers. If not, his comments are pointless, and he should stfu. He's just trying to get some free PR by inventing a controversy. The stuff about the coat and scarf is just desperate and sad.

Most likely, this pilot will never go to series. CBS has a lot of pilots and few available slots. (Given their ongoing success, this is the case every year.) Pilots have a much easier time on ABC and especially NBC.

So clearly they are trying to ride Sherlock's coat tails.

Sherlock has no coattails to ride. Do you honestly think CBS viewers have even heard of it? Trust me, Americans know only two types of TV: American TV and Downton Abbey.