Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes as Dr Watson, in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (2000), "The Royal Scandal" (2001), "The Sign of Four" (2001) and "The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire" (2002). 2002 saw a new version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" featuring Richard Roxburgh. Ian Hart played Dr. Watson then and also in the 2004 BBC airing of "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking", alternatively billed as "The Return of Sherlock Holmes". An original screenplay "based on the character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle", this film takes place in 1902, with Dr. Watson "saving a dear friend from narcotics
Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series) film was released on 31 March 1939. Later that year a second film, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", followed, which was based on "Sherlock Holmes", an 1899 stage play written by William Gillette. Although 20th Century Fox planned to make further "Holmes" films with Rathbone and Bruce, complications in negotiations between the company and the estate of the character's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, brought a premature end to the studio's involvement; their decision to withdraw from further productions was also because the Second World War meant that "foreign agents and spies were much more typical and topical than the antiquated