Amateur Holmesian Scholarship

This article about ex-boxer Joe Egan being cast as someone who gets beaten up by action!Holmes has an intriguing quote at the end

But despite the proposed Hollywood makeover, members of the society set up in honour of the man who created Sherlock Homes in 1887, say the Edinburgh writer would have loved the revamp.

I’m a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and so far haven’t heard anyone from the society comment on the film (nor am I likely, I’m just a lowly member and due a combination of lack of funds and odd working hours I’m not at meetings very often).

I don’t think Doyle would be happy with the re-vamp, I think he’d first ask the question why is everyone so focused on Holmes when he has other works (that be believed superior) and then ask the question what was wrong with the character he’d created.

Have Holmesians have got to the point where literally anything on film will do in getting Holmes talked about again?

Here are some photographs from shooting in Manchester, good to see that Holmes isn’t wearing the deerstalker/Inverness cape combo’ but he is looking very Dick Tracy. Not liking the scruffy look Holmes beard at all, here’s hoping he’s still in disguise…

The Deputy Chief LX at work informed me that they were filming not too far from the theatre the other day, I’m glad I wasn’t in that day otherwise the urge to go disrupt filming would have overtaken me and knowing my co-workers they would have encouraged me.

Another film announced to be up against ‘Sherlock Holmes’ is the Farrley Brothers ‘The Three Stooges’.

Digital Spy reports that Eddie Marsan is to be Inspector Lestrade in the Guy Ritchie film, again I’ve no idea who he is but his picture doesn’t remind me of the beloved ferret-faced detective but looks aren’t everything it comes down to acting

Hancock villain Eddie Marsan has been cast opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes.

Marsan will portray Inspector Lestrade, a Scotland Yard detective and ally of Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s revamped story of the Baker Street sleuth.

The actor, whose credits also include Happy-Go-Lucky, Miami Vice and Mission: Impossible III, said: “I’m doing Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. I play Inspector Lestrade. Holmes describes him as a man with no imagination.”

Speaking to DS about how the movie will differ from previous incarnations, Marsan added: “Holmes and Watson are a lot younger, bohemian. It works. Reading the script, Robert Downey Jr. is just perfect for a modern-day Holmes. Also he’s a bit of totty, as well!”

Since I’ve been very negative about this film let me think of something positive… er…. oh, they decided to cast Holmes and Watson younger… which is good since they are fairly young in the stories. Seriously though, a combination of Guy Ritchie (a man who might just have inherited Ed Wood’s mantle) and Jude Law (wooden isn’t even close to his acting style) might bring in some money but this film is going the same way as ‘Revolver‘.

One of the annoyance of being part of the Holmesian world is the belief that Sherlock Holmes had a thing for Irene Adler. He didn’t, in fact Watson tells us many times in SCAN that we should read the story of Holmes being bettered as Holmes making a mistake due to his prejudices, not as a love story.

I mention this now because the Hollywood Reporter have reported that Rachel McAdams is set to star as Sherlock Holmes’s love interest Irene Adler in Guy Rich-Tea’s new film. Lionel Wigram (the writer) I don’t think has read a Holmes book, he’s obviously sore about not getting to do a James Bond story and has decided to try it another way. The latest rumour about a female role character was being played by Sienna Millar, so I don’t know if this is the rumour put to bed or if Millar is also going to star in the film in as yet unannounced female role.

Rachel McAdams will star opposite Robert Downey Jr. in “Sherlock Holmes,” a reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s supersleuth that Guy Ritchie is directing for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.

The movie, which will begin shooting next month, takes its cue from a forthcoming comic book that producer Lionel Wigram wrote as a selling tool for a new take on the classic character. The concept sees Holmes as more adventurous and less stuffy than previous screen incarnations and mines more obscure character traits.

Downey will play Holmes while Mark Strong (“RocknRolla”) plays the main villain, Blackwood. Jude Law is portraying Holmes’ colleague Watson.

McAdams plays Holmes’ enigmatic love interest, Irene Adler, a character who appeared in Doyle’s 1891 “A Scandal in Bohemia.” While the character only appeared in that one story, McAdams’ personage would return for any possible sequel.

Producing the film are Joel Silver, Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin.

I’m sick to death of this stereotype, Holmes did not love Irene Alder and she did not love him. How do I know this? Let me quote you the part on Irene Alder from my response to Barbara Roden’s article about Holmes and women:

Watson tells us in no certain manner that Holmes was not attracted or interested in a sexual relationship with Irene Alder. In fact Holmes only meets Miss Alder twice in the story and both times very much disguised, his time spent alone with her was short and he was pretending to be an unconscious/concussed clergyman. Whilst I don’t dispute that his brain could have been thinking “Wow, she’s attractive.”, I do dispute that he fell madly in love with her and spent the rest of his life pinning after her. We do a lot of disservice to poor Irene. We paint her as a woman only too keen to leave her new husband to embark upon a frantic love affair with a man who was paid to essentially retrieve a photograph by any means necessary. Holmes first did a reconnaissance to find out more about the enigmatic opera singer that so troubles the King of Bohemia, he hears from his sources that Irene Alder is a ‘lovely woman’ (note he does not say she is a lovely woman) and that there is a man in her life (which Holmes describes in detail to the listening Watson). Practically knocking him for six, Irene marries her solicitor and to remember the occasion Holmes decides to keep the sovereign she gave him. He does this because it was completely unexpected, he hadn’t factored in the possibility of marriage.

Realising that time is short he devises an elaborate distraction to find out where she keeps the photograph (essentially, he deceives her), unfortunately during the deception Irene (who is a very clever woman) cottons onto the whole game and realises that she has been duped. At the end of the case, Holmes asks to keep her photograph – not for a keepsake to remind him of the lovely woman who captured his heart, but as a reminder not to underestimate anyone, let alone a woman, again.

Watson is not “protesting too much” , nor “trying to make things easier for his friend by warning off potentially amorous clients” with his famous opening. No, he is simply telling us not to look at Irene Alder as a love interest because the tale is not about that, the story is about how Sherlock Holmes underestimated a case and did not factor in all the elements essentially reminding us of that Sherlock Holmes is a human being and is not all powerful or all seeing.

(to read the rest of my response journey here)

I’d give my life savings for a decent Holmes adaptation.

Guy Ritchie has lined up actor Mark Strong to appear as a villain in his upcoming Holmes film. No one is saying who the villain is but I’d say put your money on Moriarty as he’s likely to turn up.

I don’t actually know much about Mark Strong but I have seen him in both ‘Sunshine’ and a wonderful ITV mini-series a few years ago called ‘The Jury’ – can’t remember much about his performances in either except he played a bit of a thug in ‘The Jury’.

I wish Lionel Wigram would get off his arse and release the comic book series, I want to make a decision about whether I’m going to dislike it or hate it with a passion (based on information and quotes already known, I don’t think I’m going to like this… probably better than ‘A Case for Evil’ but to be honest this new film sounds very much like it).

The Guardian are reporting that Robert Downey Jr is to play Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming new interpretation of the canon.

However, there is a piece of good news in the article:

The other possible outcome is that one or other of the projects could be shelved as the studios backing them get cold feet. A planned telling of the life of poet Dylan Thomas from Pierce Brosnan’s Irish Dreamtime company was dropped after John Maybury’s similarly-themed The Edge of Love was announced. Michael Sheen was to play Thomas, with Miranda Richardson as his wife, Caitlin. But the project has not yet seen the light of day, despite being announced three years ago.

With a bit of luck, the shelved project with the Judd Apatow produced one it looks like it’s lagging behind as, again according to the Guardian, there’s no director announced for the project whilst the Warner Brother’s one seems to have everything on track… you never know, the talk around the blog-o-sphere has been quite critical of both projects so maybe they’ll pick up on the already negative publicity and chicken out.