Cohen, Ferrell Team Up as Holmes and Watson

You know, for years, I have selfishly wanted a new series of Sherlock Holmes films. He's one of the great characters in fiction, and one of the most widely read, too, but we haven't seen a Sherlock film in theaters in decades. Yes, there was the exceedingly good BBC series with Jeremy Brett, but that's a different kettle of fish. And suddenly, Holmes is everywhere. Guy Ritchie is expected to direct an upcoming spin on the Arthur Conan Doyle character (although I'm not sure if they're dealing with new material; it's bad enough they're thinking of hiring a director who's clearly not cut out for the movie), and now we're getting a Sherlock Holmes comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell. I think I prefer Option B, thank you very much.

Columbia Pictures heads Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach announced earlier today that Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller will produce the film, and Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder...and no relation to Sacha) will write the script. Said Tolmach, “Just the idea of Sacha and Will as Sherlock Holmes and Watson makes us laugh.  Sacha and Will are two of the funniest and most talented guys on the planet and having them take on these two iconic characters is frankly hilarious.” It is hilarious, at least in theory. I actually think Cohen would be a great choice to play Holmes anyway, because the detective was tall, lanky, brilliant, had a rather pronounced nose, and was great at disguises. Even if this weren't a comedy, I kind of think he's a better choice than Robert Downey, Jr., who is the flavor of the month for the Guy Ritchie version.

And I love that Will Ferrell is smart enough to see that he has to earn some trust from audiences again, and will play the second banana. That's really encouraging news.

Even though I'm a huge Holmes fan and read something from that catalog at least once a year (pick up the three-volume New Annotated set if you can), I love the idea of spinning this into a comedy. Like Star Trek, James Bond, and Star Wars, Holmes has millions of fans who hate to be limited to a finite number of adventures. Just as there have been great examples of fan fiction and alternate storylines in those series, there have been Holmes spinoffs for over a half a century, including The Young Sherlock Holmes and the dozens of new cases he's solved that Doyle never wrote.

There's nothing wrong with expanding the universe if it's a good idea. And this is a really good idea.