Editing Lew Grade (section)

===Film===
Grade approached [[Blake Edwards]] to revive the Pink Panther franchise as a TV series, an option Edwards was not keen on,<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/8207853/Blake-Edwards.html Obituary: Blake Edwards], telegraph.co.uk, 16 December 2010</ref> but he did work on developing scripts. Eventually, he persuaded Grade to finance the property as a feature film project with he and [[Peter Sellers]] waiving their fees in return for a profit-sharing arrangement.<ref>Julian Upton [https://books.google.com/books?id=Gb5ci9IF_SMC&pg=RA1-PT28 ''Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives and Lost Careers''], Manchester, Headpress, 2004, p.28</ref> Both men's careers had not been prospering for a few years.<ref>Bob Thomas [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19751117&id=BQ9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QgIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7275,4848771 "Pink Panther Sequel Spelled Success"], ''The Blade'' (Toledo, Ohio), 17 November 1975, p. 18</ref> Only Grade's second big budget feature,<ref name="Angelini" /> ITC produced the eventual film ''[[The Return of the Pink Panther]]'' (1975), while [[United Artists]] (UA), who had earlier rejected the project themselves, gained distribution rights and a 5% share of the profits.<ref>Roger Lewis [https://books.google.com/books?id=biKazcH-dXoC&pg=PA845 ''The Life and Death of Peter Sellers''], London: Arrow Books, 2004 [1994], p. 845n.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> Distribution in other countries was undertaken by ITC. ''The Return of the Pink Panther'' was a commercially successful release.<ref name="Angelini" />

It also prompted Grade to move into the film industry, where he had success with ''[[Farewell, My Lovely (1975 film)|Farewell My Lovely]]'' (1975).<ref>"Sir Lew Grade the new knight in shining armour for British films", ''The Irish Times'', Dublin, Ireland, 27 October 1975, p. 14.</ref> Other films of the period made with Grade's involvement include the co-releases ''[[The Boys from Brazil (film)|The Boys From Brazil]]'' (1978) with [[20th Century Fox]] and ''[[Movie Movie]]'' (also 1978) with [[Warner Bros.|Warner Bros]]. He was a producer on the [[Ingmar Bergman]] films ''[[Autumn Sonata]]'' (1978) and ''[[From the Life of the Marionettes]]'' (1980). Grade was executive producer of ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' (1979) and ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]'' (1981); [[Orson Welles]] portrayed a studio executive named "Lew Lord" in the first film. One domestic British film made by the ITC subsidiary Black Lion Films, ''[[The Long Good Friday]]'' (1980) was purchased and released by [[HandMade Films]] after Grade and his company had effectively disowned it for, in Grade's reputed opinion, seeming to be sympathetic to the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]].<ref name="Duguid">Mark Duguid [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/480130/index.html "''Long Good Friday, The'' (1979)"], BFI Screenonline; accessed 24 December 2015.</ref>

Grade's backing of an expensive "all-star" flop was to prove decisive. Of ''[[Raise the Titanic (film)|Raise the Titanic]]'' (1980), an adaptation of [[Raise the Titanic!|the novel]] by [[Clive Cussler]], Grade himself observed that "It would have been cheaper to lower the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]]".<ref name="Hoge">{{Cite news |last=Hoge |first=Warren |date=14 December 1998 |title=Lew Grade, 91, Flamboyant Shaper of British TV and Movies |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/14/nyregion/lew-grade-91-flamboyant-shaper-of-british-tv-and-movies.html |access-date=13 July 2017}}</ref><ref name="AngeliniITC" /> The film was panned by critics and, after costing $36&nbsp;million, returned only $8&nbsp;million in rentals.<ref name="Raines" /> This film along with other expensive box office failures – including ''[[Saturn 3]]'' (1980) and ''[[The Legend of the Lone Ranger]]'' (1981) – marked the end of Grade's involvement in major film production.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} Despite this, several of the most critically acclaimed films produced by Grade were released after the failure of ''Raise the Titanic'': these included ''[[On Golden Pond (1981 film)|On Golden Pond]]'' (1981) and ''[[Sophie's Choice (film)|Sophie's Choice]]'' (1982), both winners of [[Academy Award]]s, as well as ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'' (1982), which was Jim Henson's final project created in association with ITC.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Vagg |first=Stephen |date=10 March 2020 |title=Ten Billionaires Who Were Stung by Hollywood |url=https://www.filmink.com.au/ten-billionaires-stung-hollywood/ |magazine=Filmink}}</ref>