One of the hottest movies of this holiday season – even if Christmas is still a long way to start speaking about it – is Guy Ritchie’s original and refreshing take on the classic story of Arthur Conan Doyle’s private detective and his ever-reliable assistant, “Sherlock Holmes.” With a release date scheduled for December 25 for US theaters, the first long trailer for the film has already been released, and it is burning virtual holes in the online fan communities.

“Sherlock Holmes” stars Robert Downey Jr. as the detective and Jude Law as Watson and, from what the trailer seems to indicate, it will be nowhere close to the story we became familiar with back when we were still children. Whereas Holmes is still painfully intelligent, spontaneous and creative, he is also extremely filthy and decadent, which seems to get him in plenty of trouble – that is when, of course, he uses his intelligence to find a quick way out.

Watson, on his part, is not as submissive as we might believe, Jude Law bringing a different approach to the character, by making it more “real” and, at the same time, almost equal to Holmes. Because of this, several movie-oriented publications are pointing out, we’re to expect not only a fun ride with this new movie, but also the by-now traditional journey of learning to discover and appreciate a friend. Should the latter part not happen though, fans shouldn’t despair since, if only half of what the trailer promises turns out to be true, they’re still in for an awesome and fun ride come this winter.

One aspect that amazed movie insiders as regards the “Sherlock Holmes” trailer was the date at which the movie studio chose to start the promo campaign for it. Even if this is a major production, starting to promote it so many months ahead of the release seems a bit hasty and rather pointless, since anything can happen in the meanwhile, it is being said.

However, a good explanation would be the fact that Robert Downey Jr. will be seen next in “Iron Man 2,” scheduled to drop in April 2010. This means that, by the time the star has to take part in the promo campaign for the blockbuster, he will already have done the one for “Sherlock Holmes.” Below is the first official trailer: enjoy.