When I was a kid, I wished for a sequel to Barry Levinson’s not-so-loved yet respectable-for-its-groundbreaking-effects film Young Sherlock Holmes. I was simply all about young detectives at the time. I wasn’t about to read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s actual books, but I loved Encyclopedia Brown and the Three Investigators (the kids who were friends with Hitchock) and was curious about Nancy Drew (I never dared read her stories because they were for girls).
Anyway, that bit of backstory is hardly important to the news that Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes already has a sequel in development, but I wanted to mention it simply because I’m ecstatic that my wish for a Sherlock Holmes 2, even if not directly a follow up to the teenaged adventure, have been finally granted. At the same time, the news also allows a great deal of movie geeks to play Nikki Finke and shout “toldja!” regarding the rumor that Brad Pitt is playing Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty, in the second installment — and likely also appears in the end of the first film (out this Christmas).
The sequel is being written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney, neither of whom worked on the original installment, and I have a suggestion for them before they begin: let this franchise be a trilogy, and make Sherlock Holmes 2 end on an Empire Strikes Back-level downer. Contrary to what some people might think, Holmes had been known to lose a case here and there (Rachel McAdams’ character in the film is actually one of the most famous to outwit him), so it won’t be too unsettling to see him fail big time. Perhaps he’ll even go into a dark period involving lots and lots of cocaine, and he won’t snap back into action until the third film.
Anyway, that’s my idea. Unlike others, I haven’t read the script for the first Holmes nor have I read all of Doyle’s tales of the detective, so maybe it’s not a likely scenario. Still, if Pitt’s the villain, it’ll be fun to see him win — maybe in a re-imagining of “The Final Problem,” only Holmes is sent to his supposed death at the bottom of Reichenbach Falls while Moriarty gets away?
Feel free to correct me or provide your own plot ideas in the comments below. First, check out what the other film blogs are saying about this news after the jump:
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Following the Disney acquisition of Marvel, and now seeming a response to that deal, Warner Bros. has announced a new company called DC Entertainment, which will apparently be an umbrella for DC Comics as well as, presumably, whatever film projects the WB plans to adapt from its publications. This may just be another false promise that the corporation is finally getting its shit together in order to compete with the more prolific Marvel Studios, but DC fans at least have a new hope until the next round of disappointments.
