Hasitha Fernando on the story behind Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes…
British writer and physician Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle would undoubtedly not have thought, even in his wildest dreams, the enduring power of the IP he created with his Baker Street super sleuth Sherlock Holmes. But such is the fascination we have with the iconic character that even after innumerable feature films, TV shows and books authored about the famous detective we still can’t seem to get enough of it.
Director Guy Ritchie and producer Lionel Wigram’s 2004 rendition of Sherlock Holmes proved to be a drastically new take on the character featuring a scene stealing performance by Robert Downey Jr. As it celebrates its 15th anniversary we look back at the making of the film and what went on behind-the-scenes…
Lionel Wigram wanted to make a different Sherlock Holmes
British film producer Lionel Wigram had been in the industry for decades producing low-budget indies, and running Renny Harlin’s company The Forge before being appointed senior VP of production over at Warner Bros. in November 2000. As a studio executive Wigram played an instrumental role in securing the Harry Potter IP for the studio as well as overseeing the lucrative eight-film series over the years. Whilst being engaged in producing the Harry Potter series Wigram, ever the fan of Sherlock Holmes, had been reflecting on new ways to depict his favorite literature character for modern audiences. “I realized the images I was seeing in my head [when reading the stories] were different to the images I’d seen in previous films.” He imagined “a much more modern, more bohemian character, who dresses more like an artist or a poet”, namely Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.”
After leaving his position as a studio executive in 2006, Wigram began working on his dream project with artist John Watkiss, weaving multiple Sherlock Holmes story elements to create one compelling story that fleshed out his take on Arthur Conan Doyles’ creation in a convincing manner. The result was an engrossing 25-page comic book featuring Sherlock Holmes battling the forces of evil in the heart of London. Wigram shopped his effort to multiple studios until Warner Bros. themselves showed interest in the property.
Warner Bros. were smitten with the Sherlock Holmes pitch
Warner Bros. saw many conceptual and thematic similarities to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins in the gritty, period set comic book story crafted by Wigram and Watkiss and decided to fast-track its development. Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyles’ stories are in the public domain the studio had to iron out certain formalities with the writer’s estate before they could proceed, however. At the outset The Descent’s Neil Marshall was attached to the project but shortly after Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrell’s Guy Ritchie officially signed on to direct in June 2008.
Similar to Wigram, Ritchie too had a different mental image of Sherlock Holmes which clashed with the big-screen iterations he had seen up to that point. “There’s quite a lot of intense action sequences in the stories, [and] sometimes that hasn’t been reflected in the movies,” Ritchie revealed during an interview. So, Ritchie wanted to remedy these glaring deficiencies or character discrepancies and he started the proceedings by doing away with two of Sherlock Holmes’ most common clichés; the “Elementary, my dear Watson” quip and the character’s now iconic deerstalker. The action oriented filmmaker sought to make his effort a “very contemporary film as far as the tone and texture” was concerned.
Guy Ritchie initially thought Robert Downey Jr. was too old for the lead role
Robert Downey Jr.’s career had experienced its fair share of ups and downs but with the release of 2008’s Iron Man one thing was certain – Robert Downey Jr. was back. In the wake of his popularity Downey was increasingly seeking interesting projects to sink his teeth into. Sherlock Holmes was one such initiative that caught his undivided attention when the actor was visiting producer Joel Silver’s offices along with his wife Susan Downey.
Ritchie initially thought that Downey was a bit old for the lead role since he originally envisioned a younger actor as Sherlock Holmes going on a learning curve, much like Christian Bale’s Batman in Batman Begins. However, the filmmaker decided to take a chance and cast Downey in the role and the pair instantly bonded from the get-go with Downey revealing in an interview that, “I think me and Guy are well-suited to working together. The more I look into the books, the more fantastic it becomes. Holmes is such a weirdo.”
Jude Law’s John Watson was more in line with the source material
In the original books Dr. John Watson was written as a man of action, a surgeon and a veteran of the Second Afghan war. However, these characteristics were dropped in the 1930s and 1940s films where the character was portrayed as a bumbling geriatric by Nigel Bruce. However, with this new take on the property Watson was depicted more in line with the source material.
Being a fan of Sherlock Holmes and genuinely intrigued by the casting of Robert Downey Jr. in the titular role, Jude Law came on board to play the super sleuth’s trusty and ever-dependable companion. Law had previously appeared in an episode of Granada Television’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes prior to this. To prepare for this role Law read the original works and made a notebook of phrases he could amalgamate into his performance. At one point during production both Sam Worthington and Colin Farrell were in talks to play the role prior to Jude Law’s casting.
Mark Strong enjoyed working with Guy Ritchie
Sherlock Holmes marked the third time Mark Strong worked with Guy Ritchie. Previously, Strong had collaborated with the filmmaker on the 2005 psychological action thriller Revolver and the 2008 crime comedy RocknRolla. Due to Ritchie’s lack of ego and flexible work ethic, the actor enjoyed working with the director and hence, signed on to play the menacing aristocratic serial killer Lord Henry Blackwood in the movie.
Writer/producer Lionel Wigram developed Lord Blackwood’s villainous character as an homage to the rise in spiritualism during the Victorian era and the later influences of the likes of Anton LaVey and Alistaire Crowley. Elements of The Hound of the Baskervilles, which also possessed a string of seemingly supernatural events, were incorporated into the story by Wigram to give Blackwood’s character a more preternatural slant. The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone was another Holmes short story that had particular influence on the story.
Rachel McAdams hated wearing a tight corset every morning
After making her Hollywood film debut in the Rob Schneider fantasy comedy The Hot Chick, Rachel McAdams rose to fame with efforts like Mean Girls, The Notebook and The Wedding Crashers. A long story short, McAdams became Hollywood’s newest “it girl” in a very short space of time. Greater prominence came with her contributions to critically acclaimed films such as Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and the Academy Award nabbing biographical drama Spotlight, later on.
When it came to Sherlock Holmes, the actress had to fit into period accurate attire which often required her to wear a very uncomfortable, tight-fitting corset and that didn’t sit well with McAdams. In order to avoid wearing the suffocating support garment McAdams would trick her costume department by pushing her stomach out or intentionally consuming an unusually large breakfast prior to being laced up. However, costumers eventually caught up to her brilliant ruse and managed to work around it.
Sherlock Holmes the street brawler finally became a reality
On numerous occasions Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has described Sherlock Holmes as an individual who possessed admirable fighting skills apart from his preternatural intelligence. In “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott”, Doyle confirmed that Holmes once trained as a boxer, and in “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” we see the famous detective showing off his boxing skills during a street brawl. In the long story “The Sign of Four”, the super sleuth even goes to the extent of introducing himself as the prize-fighter who once exchanged blows with the imposing bodyguard of Thaddeus Sholto.
Doyle even described Holmes as a Baritsu practitioner in “The Adventure of the Empty House”, which was a Victorian mixed-martial arts method that has experienced a revival recently. Both Guy Ritchie and Lionel Wigram were keenly interested in incorporating Holmes’ prowess as a fighter into their movie and they did precisely that. However, in the film the martial arts technique that Holmes uses is Wing Chun, which was popularized by Ip Man and Bruce Lee. Robert Downey Jr. just so happened to be a practitioner of Wing Chun in real life.
Hans Zimmer bought a broken piano to score the music for the film
Guy Ritchie used Hans Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight as the film’s temp music during editing. Shortly after Ritchie reached out to Zimmer himself to write the music for his latest venture but requested the veteran musician to compose something completely different for Sherlock Holmes. Zimmer described what he had in mind for the period actioner as the sound of The Pogues, an Anglo-Irish Celtic rock band, joining the Romanian orchestra. To create the sound of Sherlock Holmes, Zimmer assembled an unconventional pastiche of musical instruments which included the likes of banjos, a cimbalom and squeaky violins. The musician even purchased an out-of-tune pub piano for two hundred dollars to create the quirky, offbeat sound he wanted.
Box-office success, positive reviews & the beginning of a franchise
Made on a production budget of $90 million Sherlock Holmes went on to rake in a more than respectable $524 million at the worldwide box-office by the conclusion of its theatrical run. It was the 8th highest-grossing film of 2009 both worldwide and domestically and was also Guy Ritchie’s biggest box-office success at the time.
On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 250 reviews with the site’s critical consensus reading, “Guy Ritchie’s directorial style might not be quite the best fit for an update on the legendary detective, but Sherlock Holmes benefits from the elementary appeal of a strong performance by Robert Downey, Jr.” Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times offered praise to the effort by giving it three out of four stars and highlighting the film’s strong characters, visuals and action-packed plot. The movie even found success come awards season by garnering nominations for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction at that Oscars and winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for Robert Downey Jr.
Naturally, the success of the first Sherlock Holmes instalment prompted the studio to fast-track a sequel and that’s exactly what happened two years later with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Although not as well received as its predecessor the flick fared well at the box-office and accomplished some admirable world building whilst introducing audiences to Holmes’ greatest adversary – Prof. James Moriarty. Sadly, third outing of the franchise has been stuck in development hell for the longest time with only minor updates of its progress here and there. But here’s hoping that somewhere in the near future the threequel would indeed happen and bring about some closure to Downey’s weirdly fascinating take on the iconic character.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
