'Sherlock Holmes' Tracks Down a Release Date

In a very peculiar way, this is the biggest year of Guy Ritchie's life. A lot of people swear he's back as a first-rate director with RocknRolla, although the movie's not a hit yet. He's also running and jumping two incredibly high-profile hurdles with his divorce from Madonna (which is expected to make him quite wealthy) and his big screen adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. The movie stars Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Mark Strong (from RocknRolla and Body of Lies), and the lovely Rachel McAdams. Of all the big ticket items in 2009, this one has me the most curious; I kind of know what to expect from Harry Potter and Transformers, and even Watchmen, as excited as I am about it, isn't a great mystery.But Holmes is something new. The story is not something we've seen in the past with the character, the interpretation of Holmes is more action-oriented than intellectually-driven, and it's not truly the sort of movie you'd immediately think of for Guy Ritchie. So there are some question marks.One question mark that has become an exclamation point is the film's release date. We assumed next fall, and JoBlo reports that Warner Bros. is now eyeing November 20th, 2009, which is the Friday before Thanksgiving. That's a great weekend for a big movie, and it's smart to get it on the books sooner than later. I wish it were a little sooner, but Guy Ritchie does have one of the biggest divorces in history to worry about, so we'll have to excuse him for being a little distracted.