Robert Downey Jr.may be busy getting ready to do battle with Thanos inAvengers: Infinity War, but he is still committed to returning asSherlock Holmesfor a third go around.Sherlock Holmes 3just took a massive step forward, because Warner Bros. andRobert Downey Jr.’s production company have just hired a writers' room to work on the script. The studio is clearly taking this very seriously, because they have brought in some big name writers to work on this anticipated sequel.
According to a report fromVariety, Warner Bros. andTeam Downeydecided that bringing on just a writer or two forSherlcok Holmes 3wasn’t good enough, so they hired five. The new writer’s room for the movie will includeGuardians of the GalaxywriterNicole Perlman,BaywatchwriterJustin Malen,Rogue One: A Star Wars StorywriterGary Whitta,Tomb RaiderwriterGeneva Dworet-RobertsonandSnowdenwriterKieran Fitzgerald.
The concept of awriters' roomfor major blockbuster movies is sort of a new idea, but studios like Paramount have utilized it for massive properties likeTransformersrecently. It is very interesting that Warner Bros. and Team Downey felt the need to bring on so many big names forSherlock Holmes 3, unless they are planning on breaking stories for several movies and possibly extending the franchise beyond a third installment. At the moment there is no mention of that. The focus seems to be on gettingSherlock Holmes 3right.
The originalSherlock Holmescame out in 2009 and brought in $524 million worldwide, making it a huge hit for the studio. The sequel,Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, did even better, bringing in $545 million, so it makes sense that the studio would want to continue on with the $1 billion franchise. Earlier this year we reported thatRobert Downey Jr.is still committed to doingSherlock Holmes 3and stated that the movie could start filming as early as the end of this year, but that seems very unlikely now. Especially since he will be filmingAvengers: Infinity Warfor quite some time. Here is what he had to say in an interview with ShortList.com
“We’re talking about it right now. We can do some preliminary stuff. If we could shoot it on Skype, we could have the whole [movie] done in a week. When we’re making those Sherlock movies it is off the hook. [So] we’ll attempt to make one this year. It really is a big deal to go and do those movies. I’m tired all the time, but I’m so excited about it.”
Robert Downey Jr.hasn’t been shy about the fact that his busy Marvel schedule has keptSherlock Holmes 3from moving forward over the last handful of years, which has likely frustrated Warner Bros.Jude Lawis expected to return as Watson inSherlock Holmes 3andGuy Ritchieis expected to return to direct, at least for the moment.Ritchiewas recently hired to direct Disney’s live actionAladdin, so that could keep him pretty busy for a while. There is still no release date set for the movie, but Warner Bros. wouldn’t hire that many writers if they weren’t very serious about gettingSherlock Holmes 3made, so don’t be surprised to hear an announcement sometime soon.
