“Watson, Come Here!” Law in Talks to Join Sherlock

Warning, Mr. Law: Holmes is messy, takes drugs, and plays the violin. He’s not great roommate material.

Variety reports today that Jude Law is in negotiations to join the cast of the Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes movie. Law would play Watson to Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes.

Law will next be seen in Repossession Mambo with Forest Whitaker. He just finished filming his part in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassuss, where he is one of three actors who took over Heath Ledger’s role (Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell are the others). I like the casting here. Watson, as you’ll surely remember, meets Holmes in London after he’s returned from serving as a doctor in the Afghan Wars. Law has that 19th century “upper class but perhaps younger son who has to make his own way in the world” look that fits the part well. Watson narrates the books–wonder if he’ll be doing that here? Law is smart to take a good supporting part. His pretty boy looks have gotten in the way of him getting a chance to act, so trying to go the character route will give him back some cred.  

The movie will be a combination of several Holmes stories, with elements of the comic book version. Shooting is expected to begin next month in London. Variety says they’re still casting the villain, Lord Blackwood, but CinemaBlend reported last week that Mark Strong had the part. And apparently Moriarty, Holmes’s famous nemesis, will only play a small part in this film, raising suspicion that they’re setting up a series where Moriarty will play a bigger role in future stories (btw, I’ve read a number of Holmes stories and a bio of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I’ve never heard of a Lord Blackwood. I’m certainly not a Holmes expert by any means, but is Blackwood in any of the books? Or is he invented for the film. I’ll need to investigate).

I’ve never been a Guy Ritchie fan, feeling he’s more style than substance. But the casting is beginning to sell me on this movie.