2 x Holmes, 0 x Hefner
Back in May, I scoffed at speculation Robert Downey Jr. would be playing Hugh Hefner in an upcoming movie about the founder of the Playboy empire; not because it wasn’t possible, but because it was being treated as though it was already happening.
Now Michael Fleming is reporting in Variety that the Iron Man star has signed on to star in a movie about a different pipe smoker: Sherlock Holmes.
Said to be based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and also a Sherlock Holmes comic book, the screenplay was written by Anthony Peckham and it will be directed by Guy Ritchie. Susan Downey and Joel Silver will executive produce the Warner Bros. film which is set to shoot in October.
That’s not to say Downey Jr. won’t one day end up playing Hefner, but it’s still not news until it’s news. This is as close as I’ll ever get to one of Nikki Finke’s “TOLDJA!”’s and I may still end up eating my hat.
Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures already has a comic version of the character in the works with Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes and Will Ferrell as Dr. Watson. That film is being written by Etan Cohen (Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder) with Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller producing.
Which one will hit theaters first? Will it matter?
Filed under: News
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Guy Ritchie making a Sherlock Holmes movie?
Oooookay…
Guy Ritchie with Downey Jr up against Apatow with Ferrell and Cohen? No offense to Downey, but which movie do you think is going to be a box office smash?
I’d pay cash money to see ‘em both, but then 4 out of 5 dentist’s surveyed say I don’t have very good popular taste.
Women will be flocking to see Robert Downey, Jr. I don’t know whether it will be a box office smash by Hollywood standards, but it will draw an audience, that’s for sure. :-)
It might not draw the mouth breathers, but I bet it does ok….assuming it’s any good.
Cohen and Ferrell — now that’s an interesting pairing.
Downey is a good actor and all, but I don’t see him as having sex appeal — unless he can act it, like Bette Davis did a few times.
WOW, Pierre. You don’t think RDJ has any sex appeal?
Perfect features, good build, still has a decent head of gorgeous dark hair, awesome wit, doesn’t wear his aching vulnerablity on his sleeve - but it’s still there….
I know that everyone has very individual tastes and opinions in terms of this (I had lots of people crawl up my ass over my denouncing of Marisa Tomei in the BTDKYD thread - too bad, I don’t think she’s sexy AT ALL), but I definitely find RDJ appealing in that sense.
But that ’s just me…
lol Miranda, there was no ass crawling…at least not that I was informed of. Gentle disagreement is all.
Interesting take on Downey though Pierre. Perhaps just not your cup of tea. I have more than a few friends who would leave their husbands for him.
I think it has as much to do with his dark personality as his dark hair.
Girls do tend to love bad boys, and Downey fits nicely into that genus.
No ass-crawling at all, Miranda, a couple of guys just happened to disagree. :)
I feel like Downey is categorically American in everything I’ve seen him in. A British accent…?
And where has Guy Ritchie been? Some major pressure for RocknRolla to be good, isn’t there?
Daniel, I just watched Chaplin over the weekend. I’m not an expert on British accents, but it sounded to me like Downey got the accent right and it sounded natural.
Maybe I’m biased, though. And, as I said, I’m not an expert on British accents.
Wow, thanks, Alison - of course. Just ignore my previous comment!
Regarding the sex appeal, I agree that he has it, but would it be appropriate and/or required for this role? It would be kind of funny to see a sexy Sherlock Holmes.
A sexy Sherlock Holmes would definitely be different. Then again it’s a matter of taste. I have a friend who loves Basil Rathbone.
I always imagined him as an old man, but now that I’m not a little kid, he could easily be younger…if that makes any sense….
I don’t think his age is as important as this little character nugget (from Wikipedia): “These episodes show that Holmes possesses a degree of charm, yet, apart from the case of Adler, there is no indication of a serious or long-term interest. Watson states that Holmes has an “aversion to women” but “a peculiarly ingratiating way with [them].” Holmes states, “I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind”; in fact he finds “the motives of women… so inscrutable… How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes… their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin.”
Another point of interest in Holmes’s relationships with women is that the only joy he gets from their company is the problems they bring to him to solve.”
So is this guy a total pig or what?
at least he’s honest about it?
Guy Ritchie has yet to prove he can direct anything other than Lock, Stock retreads. This sounds like a disaster, although I will be happy to be wrong about it.
Well, hopefully Guy Ritchie will be back on his game with this. I would really like to see Robert Downey, Jr. continuing to make films that are successful, either financially or artistically, preferably both. This guy deserves to be on top in a big way.
I’m not defending Ritchie, but I think we’ve gotten carried away with the auteur theory as it applies to certain directors. A lot of people’s work goes into these movies and with the right elements, just about any of them can work out.
Great directors can make good movies from bad elements, but I think bad directors can still make good movies from great elements.
If the pieces are there, there’s no particular reason to think Ritchie will screw it up. If Ritchie is actually the guy choosing the pieces, well that’s another story.
To me a bigger concern is Joel Silver.
“Great directors can make good movies from bad elements, but I think bad directors can still make good movies from great elements.”
That’s a solid equation, Craig.
I think a bad director (or even a mediocre good director…maybe that’s Ritchie) can occasionally make a very good movie (maybe in spite of their lack of skills or inspiration), but there are countless examples of bad movies made by bad directors with a couple redeeming elements. That doesn’t make them good movies though.
And god knows, I’ve seen lots of those. Good acting or effects or some good scenes, but otherwise lame or disappointing movies. They are the rule, not the exception.
Well, look at it this way, would you rather see Downey as Holmes directed by Ritchie or Downey as Hefner directed by Ratner.
I pick the former.
“2 x Holmes, 0 x Hefner”
Dear Editor, I wanted this post to be about Hef’s diabolical experiments to clone Katie Holmes so that there would be an extra one he could use for dirty playboy stuff. (My strobing eyeballs were seeing xxx’s.) Please investigate this possibility for future article. TIA.
Hopefully Ritchie has found a multimillionaire buyer for Madonna so he can fob her off on A-Rod. Then she’ll stop with the succubus thing where she extracts his cool to sustain her eerie tautness.
Ahahahaha… Oh, Ryan, you are just too much, and I thank you for it.
“Dirty Playboy stuff” ahahahhahahaha
You need a Katie Holmes Real Doll.