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Sadly, it took a divorce from Madonna to get Guy Ritchie to return to feature filmmaking full-force (we're not counting Swept Away). After the Snatch-esque RocknRolla proved he still had the right stuff, Ritchie jumped right into the director's chair on the big-budget period film, Sherlock Holmes.
The thinking-man's detective might seem like an odd fit for Ritchie, the king of hip, modern gangster movies, but Robert Downey Jr. (Holmes) thinks Ritchie was a perfect choice to direct:
I've been around and Guy really knows how to tell a story. He's done complex storytelling very well, and he's got a great visual sense. And, I think that between that stuff and Jude Law and I really, really becoming very close-knit in our preparation for this, and we've got Rachel McAdams playing the diva adventuress. We just had a great cast and we had a fantastic time shooting it.
McAdams plays the love interest in the movie, but at a recent press event she said that the real romance was between Holmes and Watson. Downey Jr. joked along, saying that Holmes and Watson shared "circumstantial homosexuality." He went on to say:
Before Jude said he was going to do the movie, before he said that he was available, before he said that he either did or didn't want to be courted, we just started talking like two serious actors about what would need to happen to make this work as a piece of straight drama.
We just became really close, really quickly, because we just rolled up our sleeves and started working from jump.
Posted 08.01.09 by BrentJS -
Around the same time that Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes was being prepped for production, another Sherlock Holmes was announced. Instead of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law playing Holmes and Watson, it would feature Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen as the famous duo in the first comedic version of Holmes since Michael Caine in 1988's Without a Clue.
Ritchie's Sherlock is opening December 25. However, the Ferrell-Cohen version seems to have disappeared. Ferrell explained the situation to HollywoodOutbreak:
We're trying to develop [Sherlock Holmes]. We've got a script written by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder). I just met with Sacha three weeks ago, we're kinda talking about it some more. It's just a question of the Robert Downey Jr. one that they just shot, which I think comes out during Christmas. I think everyone just wants to see ... well, that one's probably going to be, you know, a hit kind of franchise, and whether that is something you want to go up against or would it inform the audience to allow for us to do a comedy version or would it just feel like, "Oh we're just trying to copy them." Even though, I think, we wrote our script before they did. But yeah, we're thinking about it.
This follows a string of bad luck for Ferrell, whose Land of the Lost bombed at the box office while the possibility of an Anchorman sequel recently became doubtful at best.
Posted 06.10.09 by Ryan -
At the US premiere of Terminator Salvation, About.com interviewed producer Dan Lin, who talked about, among other things, a couple of his upcoming projects. Lin is producing Sherlock Holmes -- directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law -- and a prequel to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which is not yet in production and has no one attached to it.
Here's what he had to say about Sherlock Holmes:
The tone is period Butch and Sundance. It's almost like a buddy cop movie set in the period world. Like Butch and Sundance, it's action-oriented, but there's definitely comedy to it. It's really about these two guys, Sherlock and Watson, who basically they're best friends and there's an incident that sets them apart and they have to come back together at the end of the movie.
Sherlock Holmes reimagined as Butch Cassidy? Interesting notion.
Lin then gave some details about the Lara Croft project, which will be a prequel to the other two movies.
Really excited -- it's a great origin story that we're going to tell. A very character-oriented, I would say more realistic than the past Lara Croft movies ... I would say it's like Terminator -- character-driven action. I think for me the Lara Croft games and movies have gone a little too action-oriented. I wanted to have action, but with character.
The movie will also require a re-casting, since it involves a Lara Croft significantly younger than Angelina Jolie.
You can view the interview in its entirety here.
Posted 05.28.09 by reelz -
Over the weekend, French site Comme au Cinema posted three new clips from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the movie Heath Ledger was working on when he died in January 2008.
Director Terry Gilliam enlisted the help of Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, who stepped in to complete Ledger's role. They will reportedly represent transformations of Ledger's character, an enigmatic outsider who joins the traveling troupe of Dr. Parnassus and gives his audiences visions of alternate realities.
The clips (included below) feature Ledger along with Verne Troyer (aka Mini Me), Lily Cole and veteran Christopher Plummer in the title role.
Posted 05.26.09 by reelz -
The first trailer for Sherlock Holmes is now up on the web. And it looks like the normally mild-mannered sleuth is now a raging action hero and ladies' man. We were wondering how Robert Downey Jr. would look in a deerstalker, but there is nary a deerstalker to be found in this preview. There is, however, Mr. Downey engaging in some fisticuffs and some Bond-esque repartee.
This latest adaptation of the classic mystery series stars Downey as the famous detective and Jude Law as his compatriot, Dr. John Watson. The story is based on the yet-to-be-published comic book created by producer Lionel Wigram, which was in turn based -- very loosely, it appears -- on the original characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. No surprise, this movie is directed by Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and is set for a Christmas Day release, which should ensure a good audience.
Warner Bros. has also posted production photos at the movie's official site.
Posted 05.20.09 by reelz -
This past weekend, the first video of Heath Ledger's final performance surfaced on YouTube. Here's the clip from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus:
Ledger was at work on Parnassus when he died in January 2008, and Gilliam enlisted the help of Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, who stepped in to complete Ledger's role. They will reportedly represent transformations of Ledger's character, an enigmatic outsider who joins the traveling troupe of Dr. Parnassus and gives his audiences visions of alternate realities. Also in the cast are Tom Waits, Verne Troyer (aka Mini Me), and veteran Christopher Plummer in the title role.
In addition, the movie's unofficial fan site has posted several stills and storyboards.
Posted 05.18.09 by reelz -
A freak accident on the set of Sherlock Holmes nearly resulted in the second casting replacement for Iron Man 2. During shooting of the Guy Ritchie project, Robert Downey Jr. was accidentally popped in the face by a 350-pound stuntman during a fight sequence. He was knocked unconscious briefly, but is apparently now doing fine. In fact, the actor refused a trip to the hospital upon reawakening and even reportedly wanted to go right back to shooting. He ended up with six stitches in his mouth courtesy of the on-set nurse.
Apparently a petrol tanker also exploded on the set last week, causing a two hour shutdown. Some sources claim the explosion came perilously close to actor Jude Law.
Is Sherlock Holmes cursed? Maybe we should consider going to 11 on our list of The Ten Most Memorable Cursed Movies.
Posted 12.01.08 by reelz -
Opening in select theaters this week is My Blueberry Nights, the English-language debut from Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn. Does this star-studded ensemble drama live up to the hype it generated at Sundance? Check out our My Blueberry Nights review.
Posted 04.04.08 by reelz -
At the time of his death last month, Heath Ledger was still filming a fantasy movie called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for Terry Gilliam.
In light of the young actor's death, Gilliam et al have come up with a way to complete the film. In it, Ledger's character is transported to three different dimensions when he steps through a mirror. Now, his character will be taken over by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell in these other dimensions. No word on when Imaginarium will resume production.
Source: Variety.
Posted 02.18.08 by reelz