Scratch a Sherlock Holmes - Cineplex.com

COVER STORY ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
SHERLOCK HOLMES
HITS THEATRES
DECEMBER 25 th
From left: Jude Law, Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr. on the set of Sherlock Holmes. Below: Downey and Rachel McAdams
“My take is what the puritans would expect if the puritans know
what they’re talking about, that is,” says 44-year-old Downey during
an interview at San Diego’s Comic-Con. “Several of the most surprising
things right off the bat are that many of the oft-associated props have
never appeared in the novels or short stories. He never wore a deerstalker
cap, except maybe once for a minute. But even then it was
described differently. And even the long pipe was something [actor
48 FAMOUS DECEMBER 2009
William] Gillette used to obscure his face on stage…. So we just
went back as much as we could, without being reverent beyond
repair, to how Doyle explained the characters.”
Says screenwriter Lionel Wigram, “Typically, everybody looks
perfect [in previous Holmes films]. Everybody looks like they
stepped out of a tableau. And what we tried to do was make it
more real. Sherlock Holmes has stubble. He’s a character who
spends two weeks lying on his couch between cases so probably
he hasn’t had a bath and he hasn’t shaved.”
Although this may not be the typical Holmes, fans should take
some comfort in producer Silver’s assurance that “it’s not Wild
Wild West.” He’s speaking, of course, of the notorious Will Smith
bomb that badly blended futuristic effects into a period setting.
Instead, Silver says, Ritchie and Downey went back to the books in
a search for authenticity.
“They’re the best lines you’d ever want to say,” says Downey,
confirming that he combed Doyle’s text for inspiration. “There’s a
million of them. I always thought Doyle was an amazing, amazing
writer and storyteller, but I didn’t know how great he was until I
was reaching out to find quotes and things he had said or descriptions
he’d said.”
In the movie, Holmes — who bare-knuckle boxes when not
foiling criminal masterminds — must unravel a conspiracy by an
occultist named Blackwood (Mark Strong) even as he contends
with his combative romantic foil Irene Adler (McAdams), and a
contentious partnership with Watson. “It’s when continued
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