Stephen Fry to join 'Holmes' sequel

[Owain Taggart]

I don't really get it. Wouldn't it have been amazing if they had pulled Sean Connery out of retirement for this?

If the fourth Indiana Jones film couldn't do it, what makes you think Sherlock Holmes had a chance of doing it?

Besides, Connery didn't have the best of luck the last time he made a movie set in the Victorian era.

Well, it was just a thought to go along with the point of getting a big name. If you're referring to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen though, I quite liked that movie, though I understand it's what made him retired.

I think the reason they couldn't get Sean Connery for Indy 4 was that he could smell a stinker from a mile away. He's usually pretty good about picking his roles.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Yes. That must be why he agreed to LXG, The Avengers, Entrapment, Finding Forester, Just Cause, Highlander 2 etc. Nearly as good as turning down The Matrix and Lord of the Rings.

 

[DonIago]

What, no mention of Zardoz?

 

[Saul]

Interestingly enough Hugh Laurie had mentioned the possibility of Fry playing a Mycroft type character on "House" when House came up against a case that completely flummoxed him he would call in his brother. Fry had joked to Laurie that he would play a character with "two limps".

So i am liking this casting but am disappointed if it means we won't see him do this role in "House".

 

[Owain Taggart]

^Yes. That must be why he agreed to LXG, The Avengers, Entrapment, Finding Forester, Just Cause, Highlander 2 etc. Nearly as good as turning down The Matrix and Lord of the Rings.

True, but everyone has their stinkers. It's inevitable. I'm just saying that for the most part, he knew how to choose well. And I just can't really see him as being part of the Matrix or Lord of the Rings. Doesn't sound like he'd fit.

 

[Professor Zoom]

And I just can't really see him as being part of the Matrix or Lord of the Rings. Doesn't sound like he'd fit.

Perhaps once he turned them down, the parts were rewritten.

He DID turn both of those movies down. That's why he did LXG, because the other ones had been so successful and he hadn't been a part of them...

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Yes. That must be why he agreed to LXG, The Avengers, Entrapment, Finding Forester, Just Cause, Highlander 2 etc. Nearly as good as turning down The Matrix and Lord of the Rings.

True, but everyone has their stinkers. It's inevitable. I'm just saying that for the most part, he knew how to choose well. And I just can't really see him as being part of the Matrix or Lord of the Rings. Doesn't sound like he'd fit.

He turned down Gandalf and he later said that he'd been offered and turned down The Matrix. It's generally believed he would have been Morpheus.

Everyone has their stinkers and I'm a huge Connery fan but there can be little doubt, for the last decade or so of his career (he's basically retired now) the stinkers outweighed the good choices.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Well, I stand corrected. I still like LXG though.

That's why he did LXG, because the other ones had been so successful and he hadn't been a part of them...

Ouch. You make it sound like the movies were better due to the fact that he wasn't in them.

 

[Christopher]

^I don't read it that way. He's just saying that Connery recognized that he'd missed his chance to be part of two successful blockbuster films, The Matrix and LotR, and so he accepted LXG because he didn't want to miss out a third time if it did well.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ahh well. Looking back on it now, it's kind of funny to hear he passed up on those two big franchises to work on LXG. It makes you wonder how they would have been. Ian McKellen was pretty much perfect as Gandalf to the point of not being able to see it any other way.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Yes, Connery is Connery and it would've been hard to get past his iconic status, enjoyable as his take would probably have been. I think McKellen was a better fit - he was simply Gandalf.

 

[Pauln6]

If they have a new heroine I hope they don't make her a 'love interest' or at least not for Holmes. Fry gets my vote as Mycroft though.

 

[Christopher]

Heck, if they're not bringing back Rachel McAdams, then they should elevate Kelly Reilly (Watson's bride-to-be) to leading-lady status.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Rachel McAdams along Downey and Law all signed on for the sequel so she'll be back and it was very much implied that Irene will continue to be a love interest for Sherlock. I'm excited for 2...and Fry as Mycroft is an awesome casting decision. Jared Harris is interesting for Moriarty considering the many higher profile actors that were rumored in consideration for the role. Noomi Raplace also has been cast in the film as well.

 

[Pauln6]

That bodes well then.

 

[Professor Zoom]

^I don't read it that way. He's just saying that Connery recognized that he'd missed his chance to be part of two successful blockbuster films, The Matrix and LotR, and so he accepted LXG because he didn't want to miss out a third time if it did well.

Exactly.

I'm ok without Irene in the sequel, actually. It makes it a little to small universe, a will they won't they, sort of thing.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Noomi Raplace also has been cast in the film as well.

Having recently seen The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I hope her part is a fairly sizable one. She's an incredibly talent.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Heck, if they're not bringing back Rachel McAdams, then they should elevate Kelly Reilly (Watson's bride-to-be) to leading-lady status.

That's a good point. Would give a new angle on things. Besides, Holmes was never romantically attached to Irene Adler. He was too wrapped up in his cases to really notice her in terms of affection.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

^Yes. That must be why he agreed to LXG, The Avengers, Entrapment, Finding Forester, Just Cause, Highlander 2 etc. Nearly as good as turning down The Matrix and Lord of the Rings.

True, but everyone has their stinkers. It's inevitable. I'm just saying that for the most part, he knew how to choose well.

True, but The Avengers, Highlander II, & LXG weren't just stinkers. They were mega-bombs!

Although, I suppose it's possible that The Avengers & LXG didn't look so awful during the script stage. In another era, being done by different people, I think The Avengers might have worked. And to this day, I still can't quite put my finger on why LXG didn't quite spark to life. (It wasn't a bad movie. It was just painfully unengaging, kinda like the Clash of the Titans remake.)

However, the only excuse for Highlander II is that he never read it at all. Although, oddly enough, I really kinda like it in a guilty pleasure sort of way and Connery is fantastic in it, even though his resurrection makes no sense!

He's an improvement over Christopher Lee in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes but I still don't think Stephen Fry is quite fat enough to play Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft is a man who never leaves the comfort of his easy chair in the Diogenes Club if he can help it. I suppose wardrobe might be able to add extra padding to help Fry fit the role better.

Unless they give him a fat suit, he's definitely not fat enough to conform to Doyle's vision, but when has that bothered this series?

Actually, I'd say that the Guy Ritchie movie payed closer attention to the original books than most other movie versions. You've got a virile, competant Dr. Watson and a Sherlock Holmes who, in addition to being a brilliant detective, is also an insufferably rude substance abuser & a rough-n-tumble man of action. The movie was great at capturing the spirit of ACD's characters, even if it modified a few of the backstories. (I.e. expanding Irene Adler's relationship with Sherlock and changing Mary Morstan's history with Dr. Watson. In the movie, she had never met Sherlock before. In the books, Dr. Watson only met her because she was one of his clients in The Sign of Four.)

 

[JonnyQuest037]

And to this day, I still can't quite put my finger on why LXG didn't quite spark to life. (It wasn't a bad movie. It was just painfully unengaging, kinda like the Clash of the Titans remake.)

Well, let's see... It changed almost everything that made the comic fun and engaging (although, to be fair, it could really only take the premise from the comic, since it was being written at the same time as the first series), it added uneccessary characters like Tom Sawyer, it was sloppily directed and edited (I STILL have no idea what happened in the Venice sequence), it made the more extreme characters like Nemo, Hyde and the Invisible Man just charming rogues instead of being the batshit-crazy/evil guys they were in the book, it gave Mina vampire powers. I could go on...

He's an improvement over Christopher Lee in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes but I still don't think Stephen Fry is quite fat enough to play Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft is a man who never leaves the comfort of his easy chair in the Diogenes Club if he can help it. I suppose wardrobe might be able to add extra padding to help Fry fit the role better.

Unless they give him a fat suit, he's definitely not fat enough to conform to Doyle's vision, but when has that bothered this series?

I actually thought that Christopher Lee was a pretty wonderful Mycroft, despite not fitting the physical description that Doyle gave for the character. Kind of like RDJ as Holmes. He doesn't look anything like Holmes to my eyes, but he still did a nice job in the role.