sherlock holmes

Warner Bros has premiered ten new photos from Guy Ritchie’s upcoming big screen adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. The photos accompany a USA Today report from the London set, which makes it evident that “this isn’t your father’s Star Trek… I mean, Sherlock Holmes.” I highly recommend checking it out, but for those of you who don’t have the time to read the whole article, I have compiled the cliffnotes after the jump.

sherlock holmes

The image that convinced studio executives to go in a new direction with the character depicted Holmes as “scruffy and stubbly, with a whip in one hand and a sword in the other.” Sounds almost like an exact description of Indiana Jones, and that isn’t just a coincidence. Producer Lionel Wigram compares the film to James Bond or Raiders of the Los Ark.

sherlock holmes

Law claims that “the physicality, the bare-knuckle fighting, the martial arts are all hinted at in the books.”

“We just hold a magnifying glass over them. A word that Conan Doyle uses an awful lot is ‘apprehended.’ As in, ‘Holmes and Watson apprehend the villain.’ We get to show the apprehension.”

But the film is described more as a buddy film or “Bromance” than an all out action film, which might come as a shock to some. The extended trailer that premiered at ShoWest was definitely evidence of this. The footage I screened had a very Pirates of the Caribbean-vibe, full out action comedy with Downey Jr taking the Jack Sparrow role. Law compares the Holmes / Watson relationship to “something as eccentric as The Odd Couple to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Withnail and I and Laurel and Hardy.”

sherlock holmes

The article even gives a little information about the film’s plot. Mark Strong plays the film’s villain Lord Blackwood, an industrialist based on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley, who “holds sway over a cult of dark-arts practitioners and claims to possess supernatural powers, is linked to a series of murders.” We get a first look at Blackwood in the photo below.

sherlock homes

Head on over to USAToday.com to see all ten photos.

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  • josh999
    are the other 4 pics hidden?
  • Looking good so far, I can't wait to see a trailer.
  • It is a Guy Ritchie movie, but if I can understand what everyone's saying through their thick accents, I'm totally in.
  • I really like most of Guy Ritchie's work. RocknRolla was a big surprise for me as I had lost a lot of faith in Ritchie's work after Swept Away and Revolver.

    I am also a huge Robert Downey Jr. fan and since 2005, when "Kiss,Kiss, Bang, Bang" came out, I have been following his career with awe. Watching both his new stuff (such as the ever popular "Iron Man" and "Tropic Thunder") and his old stuff (revisiting his brilliant work in "Less Than Zero" and "Chaplin" as well as others).

    That said, I am still concerned about the direction of this film. I have read nearly every Sherlock Holmes story (I took a Detective Fiction class in college that used a collection of his work as a Bible) and can't decide if the direction they are taking the character in is the right one.

    I have a lot of faith in the cast and crew (Rachel McAdams is also a great catch), but my greatest fear lies in Simon Kinberg, the adaptation's writer. The scripts that Kinberg is most well known for are "xXx: State of the Union" (Action Trash); "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (Action Trash); "X-Men: The Last Stand" (By far the weakest of the series, but most blame lands on Brett Ratner) and "Jumper" (Incredible Trash). In the words of Kevin Smith, however, people in Hollywood tend to fail upwards. With any luck, the story will fall more into the hands of Ritchie and Downey Jr. and they will be able to both take a new look at the Holmes character and make a quality film.
  • mmmm Robert Downey! FTW!
  • How does this reflect against Apatow's Sherlock Holmes that will be with Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrel? http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/07/02/sacha-baron-c...
  • Rene
    As for a "Bromance"? I don't remember anyone ever saying that Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody were having a Bromance. People just need to give that a rest. I don't see any thing wrong with a new reinvention of Sherlock Holmes. I think it's great that they are exploring other parts of the books and bringing other elements out. I welcome an action, adventure movie with some humor or wit added to it. That's what made me fall in love with Indiana Jones too. I feel if anyone can bring these same elements to the screen it would be Robert Downey Jr. He is a brilliant and gifted actor. He also has a natural humor or wit about him. I can't wait for the movie to come out. Oh, and I think the so-called "critics", need to sit down and watch the Indiana Jones movies. So, they can at least evaluate a movie correctly!!!! They are becoming really annoying.
  • filmkid
    i know this is different type of sherlock holmes movie but how comes it feels that Jude Law should of been Sherlock Holmes
  • rene
    This movie in no way resembles Pirates of the Carribean! Indiana Jones is an action, adventurer with a wry sense of humor. He also travels and solves/finds his artifacts with the help of his close friend, Dr. Marcus Brody. Dr. Marcus Brody was Indiana Jones' Dr. John Watson. Dr. Marcus Brody was with Indy in the first 3 movies. Denhem Elliot, who played Marcus, passed away before the 4th. There was a portrait and a statue of him in the movie. The two might even be loosely based on Holmes and Watson. Pirates of the Carribean was a Disney film, about a drunk pirate. He did not have one certain friend- the same 8 people were in every movie. I certainly wouldn't compare Robert Downey Jr. to a drunken pirate!! His Sherlock Holmes probably has more of Indiana Jones' wit and humor to it. There are different types of humor. I don't think Harrison Ford was a drunk pirate in the Indiana Jones movies either.
  • Wow I am really excited for this movie. I love Shelock Holmes and grew up on the stories and I have always loved Robert Downey Jr. so this I think is just going to be awesome. Guy Ritchie is the weakest part of the project but again as long as he just keeps the camera on Downey Jr. I will probably get some entertainment ever.
  • Can we please eliminate the word bromance.
  • im gonna go ahead and second that. it's quickly becoming one of my least favorite phrases.
  • no, we may NOT.
  • matt
    I know some people are apprehensive about the implication of a blockbuster action film version of sherlock holmes, however as they state, a lot of the things they're including - the fist fights and martial arts - are explictely stated in the books. Holmes is meant to be adept at bartitsu, which was a form of western martial arts that involved the use of a cane, he's also meant to be a decent boxer and excellent at disguise.

    So yeah whilst they're definatly playing them up, it's not that far from the source material stuff.
  • Palmer
    It's different than the classical interpretation, but different is good.
  • SOMETIMES different is good. Sometimes.

    The new "Karate Kid" is different. That doesn't make it good.
  • gregt
    Couldn't be more exited.
  • CyT
    Yeah, this actually sounds quite intriguing, now. I was worried at first but its growing on me. Maybe cos Im such an Indy fan :)
  • I, too, couldn't be more exited.
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