Sherlock Holmes

Here's a quick, short one.  As a lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan, I have seen all of the film and television incarnations.  The latest attempts, the Robert Downey Jr. turn, the new television show with Lucy Liu as Watson, and the BBC modern spin on the stories, all seem to want to alter some major aspect of the stories.  The Downey movies put a steampunk type action adventure spin on them while the television shows turn them into a modern police drama.  I'm a traditionalist at heart.  My favorite Sherlock Holmes was Jeremy Brett in the Grenada series from when I was a kid.  I like the Victorian setting and the fact that they were true to Doyles work by being straight detective stories instead of cop dramas or action movies.  Don't get me wrong, I like all of the incarnations I've mentioned.  But my idea is a series of fims based on the more famous of the stories like The sign of Four, The Speckled Band, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the Final Problem.  I should note that my forst inclination was to simply dig up the cast of Levinson's Young Sherlock Holmes and be done with it, but i decided to think a little harder.  Because the cast changes with every story with only a few exceptions, I have only cast those characters that repeatedly appear.  My casting Ideas are these...

 Rupert Everett as Sherlock Holmes
Ever since I saw Cemetery Man I cannot look at this guy without thinking of Sherlock Holmes.  He also was one of the first people I thought of when I heard about the new James Bond film.  Everett can play pretty much anything and he has the perfect look to be a believable Holmes.

Simon Pegg as Dr. John Watson
I'll be honest.  It has been hard for me not to include Pegg in every casting call I've done.  I just really like the guy.  And, with goofy comedies like Shaun of the Dead, adventures like Star Trek, and a turn as a grave robber in Victorian Edinburgh in Burke & Hare, He has a resume that makes him perfect in my opinion to play Watson.  The problem with casting Watson is that he is alternately portrayed as either a bungling idiot, or more of a muscle character who is there simply as back-up.  Watson was a smart character who sometimes seemed less intelligent because of the man standing next to him.  I think Pegg would make Watson an intelligent and capable man while still being the character that is more accessible and lovable than Holmes.

Gary Oldman as Professor Moriarty
Again, I think this guy should be in every movie ever made.  The man can do anything, and do it well.  But the thing he can do better than anyone else is sinister. Moriarty needs to be a character who with a look conveys that he wants to take over the world and is smart enough to do it.  Moriarty is threatening not simply because he is "the Napoleon of Crime" but because the only man in the world capable of stopping him is Holmes, who, in a way, seems to truly admire him.

David Thewlis as Inspector LeStrade
Like Watson, LeStrade is a character that is often portrayed as being an imbecile and incompetent.  The truth is though that he was neither.  He only appeared that way because he was constantly being bested and shown up by Holmes.  I like Thewlis for LeStrade because I can see him being good at what he does, but frustrated and jealous because Holmes continuously beats him to the punch.  all that being said, Thewlis could be great at occasionally bungling something up and insisting he didn't.



That's all for now.  Just wanted to do a short and quick one to dust the cobwebs off of the blog.  hopefully I'll have another one soon.