SirArthurConanDoyle Tagged Articles at Cinematical

No one seems to know how to feel about Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes -- it has Robert Downey Jr. in the lead, and yet the buzz is curiously off. Of course, it's difficult to get too excited about a movie that dodges its source material in favor of a comic book that has yet to be released. It puts discussion in a bit of a nowhere land.

But, I'm going to try anyway. Ritchie talked a bit about the Victorian reboot to USA Today. "It will be a very big production, visceral and intellectual," Ritchie said. "His brilliance will percolate into the action. His intellect was as much of a curse as it was a blessing. He was a deeply layered character." And he's not particularly concerned about Sasha Baron Cohen's comedic version. "They don't even have a script yet. We are way ahead."

And how did they snag the Iron Man-of-the-Moment? Downey Jr. became involved due to his wife, Susan, who is one of RocknRolla's producers, and an early fan of the film. His English accent, Ritchie insists "is flawless." I hope it's improved since his Restoration days.

While USA Today says there's no word on the casting of the villain, Digital Spy was reporting (via Ritchie at Empire's BFI Movie-Con) that the honor was going to Mark Strong. But there has been no official confirmation of that, and Warner Bros refused to even comment. Casting is expected to be finished in six weeks. But what characters from the Conan Doyle canon will appear is a mystery. Ritchie hasn't confirmed the appearance of Professor Moriarty, but he has said there will be a love interest based on Irene Adler, who appeared in the original Holmes story A Scandal in Bohemia. Holmes' admiration for Adler is legendary -- and it speaks well to Ritchie and Lionel Wigram's take that they are including such well known characters.

Join me in being cautiously optimistic about this project. After all, the film world is always harping on Ritchie to break his gangster mold, so let's support him when he does.

Now this is a combination I would have never seen coming. Variety reports that Guy Ritchie will be helming Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros. Yes, you heard that right. The iconic detective and his deerstalker cap are making a comeback -- and Ritchie is the man chosen to make it happen. It's nice to see him branching out ... I think.

The movie will be based not on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, which I find no end of shocking, but on the Lionel Wigram's upcoming comic book. Ritchie is currently rewriting the script, previously written by Tony Peckham. The movie is being slated for a 2010 release.

The details are being kept under tight wraps, so I can only venture a guess that it will remain in foggy Victorian England. On the other hand, Warners says they are aiming to "reinvent" Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, and focus on making him more "adventuresome." They will focus on his skills as a boxer and swordsman -- which, again, suggests a Victorian Holmes, but plenty of modern characters find excuses to break out a blade.

Miramax doesn't seem to be at a loss for projects lately, so it looks like they have decided to let one go. Variety reports that Gold Circle Films has picked up the rights to the film version of the Thomas Wheeler fantasy novel The Arcanum. Released by Bantam books in 2004, the novel is a fictionalized take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle leading a Super Friends style group of paranormal investigators called The Arcanum -- which includes Harry Houdini and the notorious voodoo priestess Marie Laveau as members. In the novel, The Arcanum is a secret society with a mandate to protect humanity from a variety of things that go "bump in the night" and the novel seems to be chock-full of fantasy and horror references (cameos include appearances by H.P Lovecraft and Aleistar Crowley). Throw in a plot about The Book of Enoch and a serial killer bumping off angels, and you end up with what sounds like a cross between The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Da Vinci Code, with maybe just a dash of Caleb Carr.

The project had been optioned by Miramax in 1999, but had been languishing in turn-around before Gold Circle showed up with designs on a fantasy franchise of their very own. Wheeler adapted the screenplay and a call has already been put out for a director. Gold Circle might not have the same high-profile reputation that Miramax does, but they have a respectable line-up set for the coming year, including Whisper with LOST's Josh Holloway, and the U.S. remake of the South Korean film My Sassy Girl with Elisha Cuthbert. So even if The Arcanum doesn't turn out to be the next great fantasy franchise, one studio's trash could still be another's treasure.