Shooting is about to begin for the new Sherlock Holmes in London on the Warner Bros movie, with Robert Downey Jr taking the lead alongside Jude Law, now confirmed as Dr Watson. Kelly Reilly will play Watson’s love interest, Mary, Rachel Mcadams has signed on to play the traditional object of Holmes’ affections, Irene Adler, while Mark Strong is Blackwood, the “unremittingly evil” baddie.

Director Guy Ritchie will helm the new big budget action movie which will be faithful to Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, but not be the Sherlock Holmes on film many remember - the suave Basil Rathbone or the bumbling Nigel Bruce.

Yesterday those involved gathered in London’s Freemason’s Hall, where scenes will also be shot, to talk about the movie, one of two rival planned productions. The other will be a comedy with Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell. Ritchie’s film, to be released in 2010, will be based on an original comic book currently being penned by Sherlock Holmes producer Lionel Wigram.

Ritchie tells the UK Guardian he was a huge fan of the stories. “I really knew Sherlock Holmes from tape - I wasn’t a very good reader - and what I had imagined in my mind was not exactly what I’d seen previously on film.”

He added: “We’re trying to be as authentic as we can to the original Sherlock Holmes. We’ve tried to include a bit more Conan Doyle in it.”

There will be plenty of fighting (Holmes was adept at bare knuckle boxing and an unusual form of jujitsu) and the film will explore the “co-dependency” and genuine love between Holmes and Watson. The only reticence yesterday was over what Holmes will wear - the deerstalker is out but lips are Sealed about what is in.

Downey Jr said he would be drawing on his experiences filming Chaplin, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, to create a believably British character. His Holmes, he said, would focus less on the repressed English side of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, and more on his status as “a bohemian” and “a patriot”. He went on to admit the character was “just such a weirdo.” He added: “as a matter of fact Mrs Downey said that if you read the description of the guy - quirky and nuts - it could be a description of me on some days.”

He also said the film was a fresh take on Holmes which was “kind of returning to a little bit more of what the stories always had in them and the scale of them and the canvas is so huge I just don’t think they’ve ever had the budget to fully tell the story in a really big, fun way.”

The actor, now a proper action movie lead after the success of Iron Man, joked that he was “clearly going to do it better” than anyone before him. He said he was not that familiar with Sherlock Holmes before accepting the part. “The more I read about him, the more overwhelmed I was by the weight of it and the amount of people who will be watching to see if it’s gotten right.”

Source: Hot Momma Celebrity Gossip Blog