While fans of the BBC series Sherlock have an upcoming special to look forward to, things have been fairly quiet in regards to the other current Sherlock Holmes franchise. No, not Elementary - the other other Sherlock Holmes franchise. But while things have been quiet, it now it looks like a third film starring Robert Downey Jr. as the world’s greatest detective may be making its way to us.
IGN spoke to Lionel Wigram, the producer behind the two previous films, and asked him if there was anything cooking for the future of the series. According to him, they are currently trying to put a script together to get another sequel on its feel. Said Wigram,
We’re working on a Sherlock Holmes 3 script. I think we would all love to do one if we could come up with something that really was really going to knock it out of the park and was going to be the best of the three. So we’re working on that – it’s quite hard to do.
In addition, Wigram states that both Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are "very. very" interested in returning to their respective roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. While working on a script is a far cry from a confirmed film, fans will be happy to see that the project is on their minds. Wigram does not state if Guy Ritchie would be interested in returning to the director’s chair, unless he is being included in Wigram’s "we" statement, but as the two work together a lot (they’re currently promoting their upcoming Man From U.N.C.L.E. together), it’s a good bet if Sherlock 3 gets that far he would at least be interested.
The last movie, A Game of Shadows, left Sherlock Holmes in the standard Sherlock cliffhanger situation, having tumbled down the Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty, so the first thing they’ll have to do in the script is explain how Sherlock survived. As in the BBC version on Sherlock, Watson actually witnesses Sherlock’s fall (which doesn’t happen in the original Conan Doyle story) so their options for explanation become somewhat limited, which may be at least some of the difficulty. Though as Sherlock showed, the how isn’t that important. More than likely the real challenge comes in finding a suitable mystery for the detective to solve, while creating intelligent deductions for Holmes to make. While both previous films were successes at the box office Shadows was generally reviewed as being inferior to its predecessor, so if they’re looking to outdo the original they’ll want to put that extra work in.
Are there enough Sherlocks in the media right now, or is Robert Downey Jr.’s version the one that you've been missing? Is anybody else waiting to see The Giant Rat of Sumatra on film?
