1182 replies to this topic

[Seannery]

Well as a Sherlock Holmes fan and a Gene Wilder one, I have to dissent from you guys here. It has Wilder at his frenzied peak--I guess it depends on your tolerance of broad and sometimes silly satire. I liked it a lot. I also loved the line when Wilder jealous of his brother says, "Sherlock?....No. SHEER LUCK!!!!"

[Seannery]

Hey, I don't see this as completely OT. Like Bond, Sherlock Holmes is an icon of Britain and British literature who (whom?) has been represented in film each decade by a dominate actor who WAS Sherlock Holmes for that generation. So the question is, who IS Sherlock Holmes?

William Gillette - 1900s (Sherlock Holmes/stage)
Ellie Norwood - 1920s (Film series)
Clive Brook - 1930 (Film series)
Arthur Wonter - 1930s (Film series)
Basil Rathbone - 1940s (Film series/radio/stage)
Peter Cushing - 1950/60s (Hound of the Baskervilles/TV series)
John Neville - 1960s (A Study in Terror/stage)
Robert Stephens - 1970s (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes)
Nicole Williamson - 1970s (The Seven Per-Cent Solution)
Roger Moore - 1970s (Sherlock Holmes in New York)
Christopher Plummer - 1970s (Murder By Decree)
Tom Baker - 1980s (TV movie/stage)
Jeremy Brett - 1980s/90s (TV series/stage)
Christopher Lee - 1990s (TV movies)
Rupert Everett - 2000s (Sherlock Homes & the Deadly Necklace)

Jeremy Brett--the best Sherlock. Fully captures the Holmes of the novels the best with his icy intelligent eccentricity. A great achievement akin to what David Suchet did with Poiret.

Hard to pick number 2--a number of quality performers here. Probably between Plummer, Rathbone, Cushing, Williamson and Stephens. Kudos for Cushing who distinguishes himself in the Rathbone mode--not easy to do. And applause for Williamson to being one of the best Holmes while being the best Merlin, best Little John and one of the best Hamlets.

Other strong Holmes--Michael Caine, Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Roger Moore(despite a rather pedestrian vehicle).

Best Dr. Watson--between Robert Duvall, James Mason, Colin Blakely or Brett's Dr. Watson I believe named David Burke.

[Seannery]

Ooooh I forgot! I forgot one Holmes who'd i'd put in the topflight group fighting for second best Sherlock--Ian Richardson who in the early 80's starred in The Sign of the Four and The Hounds of the Baskervilles. A topflight actor well cast as Holmes.

[Clouseau]

Hey, I don't see this as completely OT. Like Bond, Sherlock Holmes is an icon of Britain and British literature who (whom?) has been represented in film each decade by a dominate actor who WAS Sherlock Holmes for that generation. So the question is, who IS Sherlock Holmes?

William Gillette - 1900s (Sherlock Holmes/stage)
Ellie Norwood - 1920s (Film series)
Clive Brook - 1930 (Film series)
Arthur Wonter - 1930s (Film series)
Basil Rathbone - 1940s (Film series/radio/stage)
Peter Cushing - 1950/60s (Hound of the Baskervilles/TV series)
John Neville - 1960s (A Study in Terror/stage)
Robert Stephens - 1970s (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes)
Nicole Williamson - 1970s (The Seven Per-Cent Solution)
Roger Moore - 1970s (Sherlock Holmes in New York)
Christopher Plummer - 1970s (Murder By Decree)
Tom Baker - 1980s (TV movie/stage)
Jeremy Brett - 1980s/90s (TV series/stage)
Christopher Lee - 1990s (TV movies)
Rupert Everett - 2000s (Sherlock Homes & the Deadly Necklace)

Jeremy Brett--the best Sherlock. Fully captures the Holmes of the novels the best with his icy intelligent eccentricity. A great achievement akin to what David Suchet did with Poiret.

i agree 100%... Jeremy Brett WAS Sherlock Holmes, to me... every time i read one of the novels, i automatically see Brett and David Burke as Holmes and Watson in my mind...

[Silvereel]

I have to say Brett. He is Sherlock. Simple, he follows what Sherlock Holmes is perfectly.

[Royal Dalton]

Douglas Wilmer.

[Loomis]

Looks like Bond may soon have some competition in the Brit action hero stakes:

http://film.guardian...2035726,00.html

*Sigh* Whatever happened to the good old days of "Watson, the needle!"?

[bill007]

What's this??!! A Sherlock Holmes re-boot??!!

P.S. Great find, Loomis. It's not even up at the Holmes sites yet.

[bill007]

Loomis just found some news at:

http://debrief.comma...p...c=40022&hl=

[Safari Suit]

Sounds a bit "Van Helsing" to me.

[Kilroy6644]

*Sigh* Whatever happened to the good old days of "Watson, the needle!"?

A minor rewrite, that's all. Now it's the audience that says that line.

Sounds a bit "Van Helsing" to me.

Indeed. I think I'll give it a miss, if it ever makes the screen.

[marktmurphy]

Incidentally, our favourite media mogul Jonathan Pryce gets to have a crack at Holmes in the new BBC family series Sherlock Holmes And The Baker Street Irregulars which is on next Sunday the 25th March on BBC One at 5.45pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../sherlock.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk...ml#sun_sherlock

Should be nice and light fun.

[K1Bond007]

Well this sounds like a terrible idea. We'll see, I guess...

[Jim]

Whatever happened to the ITV plan to cast Stephen Fry as Holmes - seems to have gone quiet; was floating around a couple of years ago.

[TortillaFactory]

Unbeknownst to us at the time, that story was posted about the same time mikeyfish and I were discussing plans for a Holmes movie of our own.

There are some definite similarities, although we hadn't planned on making it suck.

[marktmurphy]

Whatever happened to the ITV plan to cast Stephen Fry as Holmes - seems to have gone quiet; was floating around a couple of years ago.

He's always a bit busy, and Hugh Laurie was supposed to be Watson, but obviously he's found bigger fish to fry (actually, he'd be a good Holmes too- old 'House' is pretty much him doing that).
Fry was even supposed to be writing an episode of Doctor Who but had to pull out because he didn't have the time.

[killkenny kid]

Looks like Bond may soon have some competition in the Brit action hero stakes:

http://film.guardian...2035726,00.html

*Sigh* Whatever happened to the good old days of "Watson, the needle!"?

Holmes the action hero? I tell you, the world has gone mad.

[marktmurphy]

Holmes the action hero? I tell you, the world has gone mad.

No it hasn't- Holmes has always been a man of action; he's usually got a pistol in his hand by the end of each story. One of the most famous images is of Holmes fighting Moriarty hand to hand!

[zencat]

Holmes the action hero? I tell you, the world has gone mad.

No it hasn't- Holmes has always been a man of action; he's usually got a pistol in his hand by the end of each story. One of the most famous images is of Holmes fighting Moriarty hand to hand!

And what about the sword fight atop the train in The Seven Per Cent Solution? I don't mind a little action mixed into my Holmes. And this certainly isn't the first time they've tried this approach. A Study in Terror gave us a younger, fitter, more action originated Holmes, and it worked pretty well. Even Rathbone engaged in action. As long as they don't loose the essence of Holmes (the deductive reasoning), this could work just fine. And I for one am dying to see Holmes return to the big screen. The last theatrical Holmes movie released by Hollywood was Young Sherlock Holmes...in the '80s!

[Loomis]

Sounds a bit "Van Helsing" to me.

Indeed. Funnily enough, Hugh Jackman was the first actor who popped into my head when I was thinking of people who might be approached to star in this sort of Holmes project*, and that was before I even remembered VAN HELSING.

*In other words, a big, brassy, "modern" (in terms of attitude, not setting), action-focused Hollywood franchise Holmes for the 21st century project.

[marktmurphy]

Holmes the action hero? I tell you, the world has gone mad.

No it hasn't- Holmes has always been a man of action; he's usually got a pistol in his hand by the end of each story. One of the most famous images is of Holmes fighting Moriarty hand to hand!

And what about the sword fight atop the train in The Seven Per Cent Solution? I don't mind a little action mixed into my Holmes. And this certainly isn't the first time they've tried this approach. A Study in Terror gave us a younger, fitter, more action originated Holmes, and it worked pretty well. Even Rathbone engaged in action. As long as they don't loose the essence of Holmes (the deductive reasoning), this could work just fine. And I for one am dying to see Holmes return to the big screen. The last theatrical Holmes movie released by Hollywood was Young Sherlock Holmes...in the '80s!

Indeed- and to be honest I rather enjoyed Young Sherlock Holmes; I don't think there's anything wrong with a popcorn approach to it. As long as it feels clever and Holmes gets, as you say, to deduct some stuff and it feels satisfyingly clever, there's nothing wrong with it.
As for young and fit; Holmes is supposed to be a young man; for some reason he's been portrayed as being in his late forties or older for many years, and he's supposed to be in his early to mid thirties, I think.

So, have you got a way of seeing the Pryce Holmes next week, Zen?

[Jim]

Holmes the action hero? I tell you, the world has gone mad.

No it hasn't- Holmes has always been a man of action; he's usually got a pistol in his hand by the end of each story. One of the most famous images is of Holmes fighting Moriarty hand to hand!

Quite; also a number of examples from the stories of Holmes being a proficient boxer; bopping Woodley on the nose as one.

[zencat]

So, have you got a way of seeing the Pryce Holmes next week, Zen?

Unless it shows on BBC America, I'm afraid I don't, dang-it.

P.S. Great find, Loomis. It's not even up at the Holmes sites yet.

What is the best Holmes site/blog for current news, etc? The CBn for Sherlock. A Study in Sherlock was good, but it's kind of dried up.

BTW, I just bought a book in which Holmes tangles with The Frankenstein Monster.

[Loomis]

Holmes the action hero? I tell you, the world has gone mad.

No it hasn't- Holmes has always been a man of action; he's usually got a pistol in his hand by the end of each story. One of the most famous images is of Holmes fighting Moriarty hand to hand!

Quite; also a number of examples from the stories of Holmes being a proficient boxer; bopping Woodley on the nose as one.

I once told someone that Holmes was a cocaine user, and he was convinced I was joking. Several decades from now, will the unitiated be similarly sceptical when informed that "actually, the James Bond of the original books smoked cigarettes"?

[bill007]

P.S. Great find, Loomis. It's not even up at the Holmes sites yet.

What is the best Holmes site/blog for current news, etc? The CBn for Sherlock. A Study in Sherlock was good, but it's kind of dried up.

I'm no aficionado, but I do have the 3-inch thick The Annotated Sherlock Holmes.

A super-link site I use is Sherlock-Holmes.

While I am hopeful that this project will be a good one, I'm not dismissing it out-of-hand just because of the tone of the lead-in article.

[spynovelfan]

While I am hopeful that this project will be a good one, I'm not dismissing it out-of-hand just because of the tone of the lead-in article.

I, on the other hand, have registered the domain name HolmesNotVanDamme.com.

[Bill (008)]

Holmes has survived being made into a WW2 hero (see the first couple of Rathbone/Bruce films made at Universal), a reanimated corpse (too numerous to mention), and quasi Indiana Jones type movie (YSH).

I don't mind Holmes as an "action hero" as long as they don't trick him out with a lot of anachronistic gear.

Au revoir,

Bill (008)

[bond 16.05.72]

In the section on Empire's web site that is reporting on this, one of the posters suggests Timothy Dalton being cast as Holmes.

Maybe he's too old but Tim would make a brilliant Holmes, that seriousness that defined his Bond would make for ideal attribute for playing Holmes.

With Neil Marshall directing and a fairly British creative team behind bringing this to the screen, this sounds very promising.

[00Twelve]

Man, I'd LOVE to see Tim as Holmes. Probably want some young dude, though. Ahh well.

[Loomis]

In the section on Empire's web site that is reporting on this, one of the posters suggests Timothy Dalton being cast as Holmes.

Maybe he's too old....

Actually, how old is Holmes supposed to be?