Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate has sued Netflix. Yes!! It sued Netflix. It has been sued over a forthcoming film Enola Holmes, which is of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The character Sherlock Holmes is shown in the film as someone full of emotions and someone who has respect for women. This idea is totally against Doyle’s copyright character. Therefore, it violates it.
Enola Holmes is built on the novels written by Nancy Springer. She is the latest formed teenage sister of the popular detective. They include various segments from Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Most of the segments are not under any copyright. The estate insists that Netflix’s adaptations of the story extract many key segments from the stories itself. He claims that not only Netflix but also Springer has extracted many important segments. Therefore, it suing both of them for the damages of financial nature.
Doyle’s previous allegation
This is not the first time that Doyle has made such an allegation against someone. Five years back, Doyle made a similar allegation against Miramax. It was for Doyle’s movie Mr. Holmes. It was something related to Holmes’ retirement. However, out of the allegations made by Doyle, his recent allegation is weirder. He claims that since Sherlock Holmes will need to show his emotional side in the movie, Doyle must be paid up by the creators.
In its complaint, it is allegedly said that since Holmes in the stories is “aloof and unemotional”. Therefore, changing him into an emotional being doesn’t go well with Doyle. So, he wants the creators of the movie to pay the price for the same.
The stories are now in the public domain. Doyle lost his eldest son (Arthur Alleyne Kingsley) in World War 1. He lost his brother (Innes Doyle) just after 4 months of this incident. Then finally, Conan Doyle returned to Holmes. So, it was expected from Conan Doyle to be more than just a brilliant and rational mind.
Now in the movies, Doyle has transformed into someone with lots of emotional values. He has started liking dogs and respecting women. In a conversation between Holmes and Watson, Holmes told Watson, “You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”
Holmes didn’t even bother to congratulate Watson on the news of him marrying Holmes’ client. So, what estate wants to confer is that Enola Holmes is being based on the identity that is still not touched.
