It’s not enough that we already have three Sherlock Holmes TV series (that’s right, three- Sherlock, Elementary, and an upcoming Russian series) and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films. As a society, we’re not running anywhere near our full capacity for producing Holmes-related media. There must be no stopping until we have entire world economies based around adapting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works. Every TV channel, every theater and every bookstore will overflow with deerstalker caps, pipes, and magnifying glasses.
Ian McKellen has the right idea. The actor has just signed on for A Slight Trick of the Mind, as an older, retired Holmes who investigates an unsolved case without the aid of Watson and with his famous intellect drifting away with age. Technically, it’s not actually one of Conan Doyle’s stories- it’s based off a novel originally released in 2005 by author Mitch Cullen, but McKellen fits so perfectly for this role that it’s more or less impossible to complain.
Bill Condon (who teamed with McKellen on Gods and Monsters) will be directing; one could point to his recent Twilight films and commence naysaying, but then the image of McKellen pops into your head. With a nod of head and a narrow of eye, the word “elementary” passes through his impossibly wise baritone and I’ve already forgotten what I was complaining about in the first place.
Of all the endless Holmes adaptations, this may be the one to finally unseat Sherlock from its iron throne of deerstalkers.
[Via The Hollywood Reporter]
