DB7

Guy Ritchie takes on 'all-action' Sherlock Holmes
Paul MacInnes

Guy Ritchie has signed up to helm a film based on the famous tenant of 221b Baker Street. Ritchie is working on a rewrite and polish of Tony Peckham's script, based on Wigram's upcoming comicbook "Sherlock Holmes."

The plot remains under wraps, but executives at Warners are aiming to reinvent Holmes and sidekick Dr. John H. Watson. Wigram's noted that the new Holmes would be more adventuresome and take advantage of his skills as a boxer and swordsman.

Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Holmes, written in the late 19th century, emphasized the detective's intellectual brilliance and power of deductive reasoning. The pipe-smoking character has been portrayed in more than 200 film and TV shows.

According to Variety, Ritchie has agreed to direct a "riskier" version of the Sherlock Holmes legend.

alan gowdy

Amazing development - Sherlock Holmes becomes a gangster. Dr Watson as his enforcer no doubt.

"Don't forget... one of petrol, two of meths"

Pricey

Deerstalker, morphine and two smoking jackets?

batman

I think it will be quite interesting .... there hasn't been a Holmes feature film for over 20 years so it's quite exciting for us Holmes-buffs. The literary character was quite young and energetic in the books so this new 'vision', provided it doesn't go too far, isn't so far removed from the character as some might imagine. Obviously it lives and dies by the casting of Holmes and Watson ..... let's hope the right people are chosen for the roles and not the current flavours of the month, whoever they might be.

Brand and Gervais anyone?

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

dogstar

Nice one

Only a fool looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart....

DB7

He (Ritchie) rightly gets some stick but you can't deny the energy, style and intricatly threaded plots of his first two features. Penn and Beatty should have been warning enough for him in trying to keep Madonna a thousand miles away from the camera lense.

jaycad

no doubt it'll be jason statham as holmes and someone like dean gaffney as watson. i personally don't think this 'revamp' thing works on classic books and their characters,but you never know-guy ritchie may rise to the occasion and make me eat humble jellied eel pie down the old kent road with a pearly queen!

'QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT'

DB7

I just hope they (the US studio backers) don't go down the From Hell route and demand an American 'star' in the lead role (with a dodgy accent).

It won't be Statham, more likely Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Everett or somebody of that ilk.

jaycad

that's just reminded me of keanu reeves 'quaint english accent' in 'bram stokers dracula'-that has to be the worst i've ever heard!!

'QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT'

batman

Everett said he wouldn't play Holmes again after his BBC effort but I suppose it would really depend how much money he was offered to do it. Fiennes would be my personal choice. Ian Hart, who was in the two BBC films, would be a good choice again as Watson. Alan Rickman would make a great Moriarty.

"Aha Mr Aubergine ... that's where you're wrong!"

jaycad

i wasn't a big fan of ian harts portrayal of dr watson-i found it over aggressive, alan rickman i agree would make an excellent moriaty.

'QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT'

dremble wedge

He may well make a good job of it, after all Bob Clark the director of one of my favourite Holmes films Murder by Decree also directed Porky's!

DB7

Sherlock Holmes and the case of the Hollywood duel

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent
Thursday, 3 July 2008

Sherlock Holmes, the pipe-smoking Victorian super-sleuth with a penchant for cocaine, is to become the subject of a face-off by two Hollywood studios which are both bringing out films about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's literary hero.

In one camp is Columbia Pictures, which has announced the making of an untitled comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes with Will Ferrell as his sidekick, Watson.

Squaring up to Columbia is Warner Bros, which has announced a Guy Ritchie project entitled Sherlock Holmes, which will portray the legendary detective as a punching, sword-jousting comic book-style adventure hero.

While Conan Doyle traditionalists will be alarmed about the reinterpretation of his literary legacy, few would argue that Holmes, who lived a bachelor's life in his Baker Street lodgings with Watson, does not have mass-market appeal. But film experts agree that only one "big studio" film can be a winner.

Archie Thomas, from Variety magazine, said two similar releases would inevitably lead to "brinkmanship" in a race to get the film out first – as happened with the two movies about the author Truman Capote in 2005-06.

"Presumably they have done their research and there is an appetite for Sherlock Holmes," he said, "but is there an appetite for two?"

Ritchie's vision is based on a comic book created by the Harry Potter producer Lionel Wigram, and has been slated for release in 2010. The casting is unconfirmed but Robert Downey Jnr – a reformed drug addict himself – has been rumoured. Fans of Ritchie's hit film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, about London's criminal underworld, will inevitably be drawn to a remake that is said to give Holmes a "gangland makeover". The studio says it wants to "reinvent" Holmes and Dr Watson to make him more "adventuresome", focusing on his skills as a boxer and also a swordsman.

But Columbia's Sherlock may, ultimately, have the greater advantage, in its co-producer Judd Apatow, one of Hollywood's hottest talents, who has produced the successful 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Louise Tutt, deputy editor of Screen International, called Apatow "Hollywood's filmmaker de jour", adding: "He is a brand in himself. Anything he gets attached to gets 'green lit', given money by the studio." For that reason, she suggested, his Holmes is closer to the big screen. The casting of Cohen and Ferrell together, after their chemistry in the film Talladega Nights, will not hurt its chance at the box office. The director has not yet been announced; a late 2009 release seems the most probable.

The one cloud hanging over Apatow's film is the charge that transforming a classic crime thriller into a rambunctious comedy is sacrilege, although there have been occasional comic versions that have proved successful, including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's 1978 performances in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and 1988's Without A Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley.

The films are likely to cause a rekindled interest in the hero and boost the film tourism industry, according to the UK Film Council. A spokesperson said: "We've found that many UK locations experience a dramatic rise in visitor numbers when they are shown on the silver screen."

The legendary detective of Baker Street

The Baker Street detective was the invention of the Scottish author and physician, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, first appearing in print in 1887. More than a century later, he remains one of the canon's most memorable heroes, not just for his supreme powers of "deductive reasoning" but also for his predilection for injecting morphine and cocaine at his bachelor pad, which he shared with his decidedly less brilliant companion, Dr Watson. He took drugs when he lacked stimulating cases. Watson described that as Holmes's "only vice" but was the one to wean Holmes off drug use. He also went without food for long periods during his more intense criminal cases.

Holmes appeared to be aware of his flaws. In one book, he described himself as "bohemian" – he was disorganised and, as Watson notes in The Adventures of the Musgrave Ritual, he left everything from his notes of past cases to remains of chemical experiments scattered around their apartment, as well as tobacco left inside his Persian slippers.

Portrayed as a genius, rarely seen out of his tweeds and deerstalker hat, he was the protagonist of four novels and 56 short stories – almost all narrated by Watson.

DB7

Downey Jr. set for 'Sherlock Holmes'

Downey committed to the pic, which begins shooting in October, after Ritchie turned in a polish of the latest version of the script, written by Anthony Peckham.

Downey emerged as an action star with "Iron Man" and "Sherlock Holmes" also will take advantage of his physical skills as the character displays brawn as well as brains.

The basis for the film is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic tales, but also the comicbook "Sherlock Holmes."

With Downey aboard, the film will go into production before a comedy that just coalesced at Columbia Pictures, with Sacha Baron Cohen playing Holmes, and Will Ferrell playing his crime-fighting partner Dr. Watson.

dremble wedge

Robert Downey Jr is one of the most charismatic actors around. He doesn't immediately spring to mind as Holmes but he could well pull it off.