Accidents have hit the set of Guy Ritchie’s take on Sherlock Holmes. The Sun reports that Robert “Iron Man” Downey Jr. was knocked out accidentally by seven-foot British actor Robert Maillet after catching a hook to the chin.
“[Downey] went flying and was out cold… he didn’t want to go to hospital and kept trying to get up,” reads the report. The actor was revived by medics and needed stitches inside his mouth.
Other reports circulating on the web note that the set was closed for two hours when a tanker making a delivery burst into flames.
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Film company face-offs are not that uncommon. Last year there was the battle of the animated rats, Flushed Away (Dreamworks) and Ratatouille (Pixar/Disney), with the latter obviously winning. There was also the battle of large objects crashing into earth movies, with Armageddon and Deep Impact both released around the same time (whoever won, we lost). And it seems next year will see another face-off: the battle of the Sherlock Holmes movies.
Today the Hollywood Reporter announced that Robert “Iron Man” Downey Jnr has signed on to play Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s version of the movie. Last week saw the announcement of the first Sherlock Holmes revival, starring Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen playing Holmes with Will Ferrell as Watson. The films will have differing takes on the traditional sleuth. While Ritchie’s film is based on a comic, and explores the more adventurous side of Holmes, Cohen’s Holmes will be playing for laughs.
So who will win? Well, after the hideous Swept Away and dull Revolver, I can’t help but feel that Ritchie is irredeemable. Sure, Downey Jnr is as hot as lava after the huge success of the entertaining Iron Man, but let’s not forget that he’s had more misses than hits in the past. My money is on the comic version. Since Borat Cohen is on a career high, and Ferrell will be an appealing support. Plus, the character of Holmes is so familiar, and the detective genre so exhausted, that it will be hard for a modern audience to take Holmes seriously. Indeed, a Holmes comedy was already made, Without a Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, and while the premise was amusing (Holmes was a moronic poster-boy for Watson’s true brilliance), the delivery was sub-par. Let’s hope that Cohen and Ferrell can come up with a better film.
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A few months back there were plenty of doubts about Iron Man. The comic book character, a rich industrialist who designed a supersuit to fight crime, is not one of Marvel’s most defining characters. And many doubted the talents of director Jon Favreau, who has only directed kid-oriented fluff such as Elf and Zathura, and lead actor Robert Downey Jnr, who has had more relapses than hit movies. Yet slowly but surely, the film began to pick up momentum, and this weekend, its first, has seen it earning $200 million worldwide. Reviews have been kind, so is Iron Man a worthy first blockbuster of 2008?
The film traces the origins of Iron Man. Tony Stark, designer of advanced weapons of mass destruction, is kidnapped in Afghanistan by terrorists, and forced to build weapons for them. Instead, he invents a clunky suit to escape, after a fellow prisoner, Yinsen, manages to show him the consequences of his missile designs. After escaping, Stark decides to work for peace instead, but faces resistance by his business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who has plans to steal Downey’s iron man design.
There are two reasons why Iron Man works as a film. Read the rest of this entry »
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