14 DAY TRIAL // Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” doesn’t drop until Christmas, but producers and studio bosses at Warners are seemingly so certain it will be a massive hit, that they’ve already arranged for a sequel. Talks are now being carried out with screenwriters for the follow-up story, while Brad Pitt stands as a strong contender for the part of Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty, Risky Biz Blog says.
Reports of Pitt doing Moriarty first emerged in August this year, when inside sources dished out to the media that the movie studio was not happy with Ritchie’s film and wanted him to shoot several extra scenes. Pitt, who worked with the British director on the gangster film “Snatch,” was reportedly approached to do a few scenes as Moriarty for a different ending, a report the actor’s management promptly denied at the time.
“The studio is poised to bring on Kieran and Michele Mulroney, the scribes who are penning its ‘Justice League: Mortal’ tentpole, to pen a draft of the new tale. Brad Pitt has had discussions with producers to star as Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty in the new pic, say people familiar with the project, though there is no deal in place for him to take the part. Susan Downey, Dan Lin, Joel Silver and Lionel Wigram produced ‘Holmes,’ a holiday release that, from well-received footage at Comic-Con, appears to be an action-heavy rendition of the world Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created.” RBB writes, citing well-informed, inside sources.
Skeptics say that, whereas Pitt doing Moriarty is not such a far-fetched option, the idea of Warners already hammering on a sequel a full three months before the release of the first film is downright absurd. No studio would rush to set the wheels in motion for a full-fledged franchise when it doesn’t know if the first film fares well at the box-office, they say, and Warners is certainly not that inexperienced to do so, with “Sherlock” based solely on the reception footage from the film had at Comic-Con. With all that and no matter how absurd that may sound, RBB says, it’s not an uncommon practice in Hollywood.
“It’s increasingly common for a studio to begin developing sequels ahead of a movie’s release, enabling a second pic to get into production faster than it normally would, and at a comparatively low cost. […] Warners is keen on developing new franchises, with Holmes – with its broad fan base and rich source material – considered a very appealing candidate. The project would also mean Downey would star in a second franchise, after ‘Iron Man,’ while DreamWorks could build yet another franchise around him with ‘Cowboys and Aliens.’” RBB explains.