Y’know, we took a couple of weeks off to let Hollywood come to its senses and quit making these kind of announcements. (Well, that’s at least part of the reason we’ve been gone. Family business and other things have also been the cause of some delay, but hopefully all of that is taken care of for awhile.) Obviously we were wrong…

from variety:

Columbia Pictures has set an untitled comedy that will star Sacha Baron Cohen as master detective Sherlock Holmes and Will Ferrell as Watson, his crime-solving partner.

Etan Cohen (”Tropic Thunder”) is writing the script, and Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller will produce.

“Just the idea of Sacha and Will as Sherlock Holmes and Watson makes us laugh,” said Col co-prexy Matt Tolmach. “Sacha and Will are two of the funniest and most talented guys on the planet, and having them take on these two iconic characters is frankly hilarious.”

Apparently Matt Tolmach has confused the meanings of the words “hilarious” and “hideous”.

OK, we’ll be back in a bit with more catching up, as soon as I can find my puke bucket…

Like I said earlier, catching up today:

ComingSoon.net has just published a set visit report and interview with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law concerning their upcoming turns as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Guy Ritchie is directing the film, and considering Downey’s recent wonderful takes in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, this should definitely be one to look forward to.

A short excerpt from the interview:

Downey Jr.: This is my take on it: Arthur Conan Doyle in a movie has to be Watson because unless you’re doing this story about Charles Dickens talking about Victorian London, but you’re not. If you’re doing a story about Victorian London and these characters, then the writer has to be the person who started writing. So it’s that kind of thing where I really feel that there’s a lot of similarities with both where they’d been schooled and influences on Conan Doyle, wasn’t it a Scottish doctor or something like that? But the mythology–not to get too Joseph Campbell about it or anything–is that if there’s an origin story to be told, it’s at what point did these friends realize that one of them has to, if for a bunch of reasons, just to get it off his chest or because no one will believe it…

Law: There was a line you found that said, you know, early on when Holmes asked, “What are you going to do? What are you doing with all those notes?” And he said, “If I don’t write something, someone else will. So I have to write.” Just as Robert said, it’s clear that the storyteller, maybe Conan Doyle, maybe the audience, but it’s Watson’s POV because Holmes’ brilliance being – he’s so special that it has to be observed as opposed to seen through his eyes if you like.

Downey Jr.: But like “Huck Finn” and “Tom Sawyer,” everybody knows – who’s the one who’s getting people to paint fences? It’s Tom Sawyer. Everybody knows the guy who you’re like, “You know what? It’s kind of f*cked up that he does that, but you wouldn’t ’cause most of live these lives in the center where we’re–present company excluded… well included lately–where you’re objective enough to say, “Well, I couldn’t live and be in that extreme. I couldn’t just have a life dedicated to nothing, but date and tracking down criminals.” It’s like a half-psychotic workaholic, but the idea that he keeps throwing Watson into adventure I think again, that brings me back to what Watson represents, the aspect of people who have done their time in “society,” whether you want to use military or being essentially a blue collar worker, being a doctor, being someone who aspires to the Hippocratic Oath. All these things that we buy into that also has a sense of adventure that I think Conan Doyle was using both these guys to say, “Look, there’s this other thing. It shouldn’t be the mainstay of your life.” Watson is settled enough, he has a proper job and he’s happily married midway through their stories, but they have the adventures, you know?

Law: And there’s a wonderful sort of moral code that they both keep. I think some of that may be… with Holmes it’s a sort of fascination, it’s a science, and with Watson it’s a much more human sort of approach to scum, but it’s not vigilante, it’s almost sort of a law enforcing element to the two of them.

Downey Jr.: They’re not bound by the same things that typical law enforcement would be and also we’re talking about a time where law enforcement was still different, and forensics was still kind of not quite where it’s at.

Sounds like Warner Brothers may have quite a Christmas present in store for us Holmes fans…