It seems like Robert Downey Jr. has a major film coming out every couple of months nowadays; The Soloist was released last April, Sherlock Holmes hit cinemas at Christmas, Iron Man 2 touched down just over a month ago, and the first Sherlock Holmes movie then made it to Blu-ray and DVD a couple of weeks ago; and now Sherlock Holmes 2 has been given an official release date, of December 16th, 2011.
And whilst we may now know the film’s release date, Sherlock 2 is still in the fetal stages of pre-production, meaning that aside from a couple of vague rumours, some fan guesses and wishlists, and the general idea that there will be a few eccentricities, and a little bit of sleuthy detective work, going on, nothing is really known about the plot, by anyone outside of Guy Ritchie’s (Snatch) inner circle; and as it’s bound to be adapting and evolving up until shooting starts, much of what they know is still subject to change.
The announcement of the release date may also cause a couple of other movies to shift theirs, as it will be going head-to-head will Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D (which can’t really hope to score anywhere near as highly as Holmes and Watson, on the Box Office rankings), and Mission Impossible IV (which has a slightly better chance of cornering the Christmas run-up crowd); both of which are aimed at either the family, or action, movie crow (or both); and as the week after will see Steven Speilberg’s (Close Encounter’s of the Third Kind) 3D Tintin movie release, there’s only one way for the others to go; back.
For now at least, all of three movies are set to be released in the same week, and whilst not much is known about the plot of Sherlock’s sequel, it is known that Robert Downey Jr. will be back as the titular, eccentric, detective, Jude Law (Enemy at the Gates) will once again return as Holmes’ partner; Watson; and Guy Ritchie will once again direct, and shall either include, or heavily allude to Moriarty (a criminal mastermind, who is the archenemy of Holmes, and someone he refers to as the ‘Napoleon of Crime’) during the film.
