Sherlock Holmes Preview

It's been 20 years since Hollywood last produced a Sherlock Holmes movie. That picture, 1988's Without A Clue, was notable for not actually featuring the master of deduction - in Thom Eberhardt's movie, Holmes was a fiction created by Ben Kingsley's Watson to take credit for the cases he cracked. As such, Without A Clue stands alongside Young Sherlock Holmes, The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and the numerous other pictures that have tried to put a fresh spin on Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved creations.

Try as they might, the studios have had a hard time improving on the original work. Whether it's Holmes dueling with Jack The Ripper or trying to thwart the Nazis, pictures like Murder By Decree and Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror can never hope to recreate the atmosphere or suspense. And as for Hollywood playing Sherlock for laughs, five minutes of Pete and Dud's The Hound Of The Baskervilles should prove that this is an elementary mistake.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, writer-director Guy Ritchie has decided to head down the reinvention root for his next film. Based not upon the canon but an as-yet-unpublished Lionel Wigram comic-book, Sherlock Holmes stars the piping hot Robert Downey Jr and the lukewarm Jude Law as the dynamic duo, out to thwart the evil machinations of the Moriarty-esque Lord Blackwood (Ritchie regular Mark Strong). Along the way, the dick apparently dukes it out with a giant and enjoys the attentions of Irene Adler (Wedding Crasher Rachel McAdams).