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Wednesday
28Jan2009

'Holmes' Writer Says Sherlock is "More Modern"

DateWednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:42AM
Regular Big Picture readers know that this year's Sherlock Holmes movie has me deeply concerned. It's not so much Robert Downey Jr. as the master detective that has me worried (although that seems more like popularity casting rather than ideal casting), but I can't say that Guy Ritchie has proven to me he's the right kind of director for the job, and the early shots from the set seem to be something other than Sherlock Holmes.

It's true that I don't see the point in remaking something just to remake it, but with one of the most iconic characters in English literature, it seems that reinventing him is also something of a disservice. And yet, Lionel Wigram, who wrote the upcoming comic on which the film is based, tells The New York Times that as much as he loves Sherlock Holmes, he really doesn't buy into this whole Sherlock Holmes.

“I never agreed with the idea of the fairly stuffy Edwardian-type gentleman,” Wigram said. “It wasn’t my idea of Sherlock Holmes."

I suppose Wigram could be referring to popular interpretations of Holmes rather than the one in Doyle's books, although this business about Holmes being a fencer and a bare-knuckles boxer and an all-around man of action is overstated; there are very few references to either one in the Holmes texts, certainly not enough to insinuate that they're on par with his intellectual gifts.

You will see the new Holmes reflect Wigram's new spin of “a much more modern, more bohemian character, who dresses more like an artist or a poet," even though that's hardly an accurate reading of the character, either. Holmes is a lot more measured than manic, so we'll see how it comes out in the wash. But jazzing up one of the most-read fictional characters in the world kind of makes me wonder why they just didn't invent their own master detective.

Sherlock Holmes is due out November 20th.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

I'm not critical of the reinvention per se.

Doyle's works were rather stereotypical and after the Brett series, going for more starched-collar fidelity is a dead end.

What would have been truly fascinating, is to reset Holmes to the modern day. That would have caused a stir and it could have been done to some great effect.

There are some interesting parallells and differences between Victorian London and modern day London, expecially in the tension between English tradition and international influences. The fear of the wild and unknown, streaming in from the Empire is one of the big features of Doyle's books.

Today there is still a very traditional England with cricket and tea living side by side with a jaded sense of internationalism and new developments which are not yet fully known.

But my concern is the director, who so far only has proved himself as a maker of a particular type of British gangster flick. Pretty much anything else has failed.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLengthy Johnson

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