In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not in Vegas for ShoWest, the annual conference where companies bring their films to pitch to theater owners. Which kind of sucks, because the surprise presentation yesterday was actual clips from Sherlock Holmes that garnered mixed Twitter reactions.
@firstshowing described it as a British “romp,” which was surprising and others brought up Robert Downey Jr’s odd British accent.
There was action and humor?
What happened in Vegas won’t stay there…
From Coming Soon:
The footage, a pseudo teaser-trailer, that followed had never been shown before, although we did glimpse a few scenes we saw being filmed and that were shown to ComingSoon.net during our set visit last year, including Holmes’ bare-knuckle fight and the early fight with Blackwood’s henchmen. Otherwise, there was a lot of information going by very fast, as is always the case, so we tried to take notes and remember what we could.
It opens with eerie music and shadowy scenes of Victorian London and we see a shot of Downey’s Holmes running down a spiral staircase and another of him smoking his trademark pipe as a voice-over tells Holmes that he needs to “widen his gaze” because he’s underestimating the “gravity of coming events.” The voiceover tells Holmes that at the dawn of the new day, the world as he knows it would end, to which Holmes responds playfully, “Well, there isn’t any time to waste then” and he jumps out the window.
We get a brief glimpse of Eddie Marsan’s Inspector LeStrade saying something about someone seeing Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong’s villain in the film) rising from the grave, and Holmes is asked to find and stop him, which Holmes claims will “take every ounce of my not inconsiderable experience.” To that, LeStrade comes back with a slam about it maybe being a hobby to Holmes, but that he does it for a living. (This confirms what Marsan told us last year about their working relationship not being a particularly friendly one.)
Holmes says that he needs to have someone with him that he can thoroughly trust, at which point we see him greeting Jude Law’s Dr. Watson and we get a bit of the rapport between them, as the two of them squabble about the things roommates normally argue over, Law complaining about Holmes playing the violin late at night and his “lack of hygiene.”
After that, we get a bit of the interaction between Holmes and Rachel McAdams’ Irene Adler, as they scuffle, her pulling out an ornament from which sharp blades jut out to threaten Holmes. That interaction ends with him left chained to a bed. Watson finds him in that state and asks, “Holmes, does your depravity know no bounds?” to which Holmes replies, “No.” (Later we see Adler in a very sexy outfit, as McAdams’ credit is shown.)
Another scene shows Holmes facing a much larger opponent, who looked like Nathan Jones, the giant from the opening of Troy, atop what looked like a clock tower. Jones is wielding an enormous sledgehammer while Holmes is carrying just a standard everyday hammer, which he promptly throws at the giant hoping that would do some damage. (It doesn’t, and the giant attacks.) This scene got a huge laugh from the audience.
There was a quick-cut montage of more action scenes before a scene where a maid walks into a room and screams, dropping the tray she was carrying. We cut to Downey chained to a bed naked except for a pillow covering his genitals, and he asks her to remain calm and that under the pillow is the “key to his release” and the shocked woman runs out screaming.
I’m not one to knock dick jokes or a rollicking good time. However, I’m also someone with a deep respect for the Sir Aurthur Conan Doyale character. What I’m reading doesn’t seem like a departure that will hurt Sherlock (at this point, the dud has been through so many adaptations, nothing’s gonna stick like Basil Rathbone). The real question is: Will Guy Richie’s humor mix well with Guy Richie’s action and still deliver the character I want to see on the screen?
Guess we’ll have to wait to see the footage for ourselves before we find out, eh guys?
