Guy Ritchie to direct Sherlock Holmes?

John Moore

Luv-A-Duck! Guy Ritchie gets his mockney claws into Sherlock Holmes. Be afraid.

Published on Jun 5, 2008

Word is doing the rounds, and has emerged via Hollywood Reporter, that Guy Ritchie's new flick RocknRolla has impressed Warner Brothers so much that they're handing him the reins of their proposed Sherlock Holmes re-take.

This is no low-budget Lock, Stock... either, it's a project that has some serious muscle behind it in the form of Dan Lin, the studio's former Senior VP of Production - where he was one of the forces behind The Departed, The Aviator and er, Scooby-Doo 2, before starting his own Lin Productions last year. Also involved is Lionel Wigram (the man who has overseen the Potter series), who has penned a comic based on a
script written, whilst Descent director Neil Marshall was attached to the project a while back. The script will be polished and re-written by the team for the new film.

Of course, the modern re-take does not intend to take its cues from 20th Century Fox's Basil Rathbone tales, or Jeremy Brett's laconic genius - rather it hopes to include far more daring do, and probably some horrific steampunk gadgets too, knowing the propensity that Hollywood has to mess around with Victoriana. We'll see.

I will, of course, be having nightmares for the next year or so about the complete mess this movie could be, I refuse to forget the car-crash that was The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Meanwhile, Hollywood extras are no-doubt polishing up their best Eliza Doolittle impressions for their turns of the streets of London as we speak. Expect Dick Van Dyke-ness and Vinnie Jones, somewhere. It's bound to happen.

Poor old Conan-Doyle eh, they just can't leave Holmes alone.

I reckon Jude Law to star, what do you think? Who'd make a great Holmes?