Ps, if you want to see footage of all the “Sherlock Holmes” characters in costume, including a first look at the villain Mark Strong, MTV has the goods in this clip below and detailed set report.
A lot of people have asked about Rachel McAdams’ character Irene Adler who only appears in one of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle books and is relatively unknown to mass audiences.
“Irene is a bit of both. She’s in one story. She’s in ‘A Scandal in Bohemia,’ and she doesn’t really appear anywhere else,” McAdams explained. “So it’s been a mix of what Arthur Conan Doyle set out and what the writers added on. [Holmes and Irene] are quite old flames at this point. They have a bit of a history together. He was actually the witness at her wedding. She coerced him into that, unknowingly. Lovely. And this scene [that we’re shooting today] is the first time they’ve met since that wedding, and she’s no longer married. She’s come back to ask for his help.”
Director Guy Ritchie for one, seems pleased as punch that he had a big budget to fool around with. So much so he’s still not sure what the film will look like presumably because he’ll be adding a significant amount of special effects (his interview is done in front of green screen). “I don’t know what it is going to end up looking like yet,” Ritchie laughed. “I was attracted to the idea, because I wanted to do something that was different from what I’ve done previously. It was English, and I like that. And an iconic character, I like that. And [the studio] had deep pockets, and I like that. So I get to play with all the toys I can play with.”
It’s a good piece if you haven’t read the script, so if you’re looking forward to this tentpole flick. Follow the link above and read more. Bewarned Robert Downey Jr. uses the dreaded, overused and now played-out term, “bromance.” Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Because when I think “shooting a Sherlock Holmes movie” I think “We’re gonna need green screen!”
It’s great that a new audience is discovering Irene Adler, a fascinating character who appeared in the first Sherlock Holmes story but was “killed off” in Watson’s narration by the time of the telling. (I think Doyle, a man both ahead of and firmly embedded in the Victorian era, admired a brilliant and bold woman like Irene, but was also a bit afraid of her.)
She was the only woman among four people to outwit Holmes.
I’m the first author to take a woman from the Holmes “Canon” and make her the protagonist of a spin-off series of novels. The first Irene Adler novel was the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, “Good Night, Mr. Holmes.”
There are seven more novels in the series, set in 1880s London, Paris, Prague, Monaco, Transylvania and New York City, and several short stories, including one in which Irene Adler tangles with Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula.
Holmes and Watson, of course, are also involved, but Irene Adler is the opera diva turned detective and a hero in her own right.
Carole Nelson Douglas