September 14th, 2009: In a dynamic new portrayal of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous characters, "Sherlock Holmes" sends Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson on their latest challenge. Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary intellect, Holmes will battle as never before to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy the country. Based on Lionel Wigram's yet-to-be-published comic.
The coming film, which was first inspired by a comic book that producer Lionel Wigram wrote to help build support for a Holmes movie, promises to give the Holmes franchise a provocative twistby adding a dose of martial arts, something that most portrayals of the hero have ignored. Mr. Downey, who did many of the fight scenes himself, says that the film hews very closely to Doyle's original descriptions of the British investigator, which focused on his superb martial arts skills as well as the close relationship that Holmes has with his friend and sometime roommate, Dr. John H. Watson (played by Jude Law).
Doyle talks about how Holmes is a stick fighter and a master of baritsu [Doyle's altered spelling of the real martial art bartitsu]. So Guy [Ritchie] made those traits a big part of the character."
