'Sherlock Holmes 3' leading man Robert Downey Jr. revealed that the sequel is already in development. Producer Lionel Wigram also admitted that they are currently working on a script that will be better than its predecessors.
According to International Business Times, Downey Jr. revealed that the third installment in the action-thriller and mystery films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective is finally in development.
He said, "Yes, we have a 'Sherlock 3' in development. We want it to be the best of the series, so that's a pretty tall order... Also, Perry Mason is a property I'm looking forward to developing further, going back to the 1931 book series ... similarly to what we did with the first 2 'Sherlocks,' mining the original material for things that are 'new.'"
Downey Jr. made his first appearance as the main protagonist Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie's 2009 film 'Sherlock Holmes'. The film was released in the United States on Christmas Day in 2009 and received mostly positive critical acclaim. It also became a box office success earning $524 million, against a $90 million budget.
A sequel, 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows', followed in December 2011 referenced Doyle's short stories 'The Final Problem' and 'The Empty House'. It was also a commercial success, earning $545 million against a $125 million budget. Warner Bros. announced a possible third installment in October 2011.
Producer Lionel Wigram revealed that both Downey Jr. and Law would be reprising their roles for 'Sherlock Holmes 3'. According to IGN, he revealed that the film's new screenplay was still being written while promoting 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.', his new collaboration with Ritchie.
Wigram said, "We're working on a Sherlock Holmes 3 script... I think we would all love to do one if we could come up with something that really was really going to knock it out of the park and was going to be the best of the three. So we're working on that - it's quite hard to do."
Meanwhile, Law admitted that he pitched a time travel concept to Ritchie and Downey Jr. during one of their meetings. According to Ecumenical News, he said, "I thought [we could] sort of combine H.G. Wells and Sherlock Holmes. And then Downey topped it by going, 'Yeah, and the time travel machine is... it's something you eat.' I wonder what he's referring to there? I don't know. You eat it and you go, 'Oh my God, I'm in 2024!'"
The English actor recently starred in Paul Feig's action-spy comedy film 'Spy' and is set to appear on Ritchie's epic adventure film 'Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur' scheduled to be released in 2017.
'Sherlock Holmes 3' is a planned thriller-mystery detective film starring Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. John Watson. It is intended as the third installment in the cinematic series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective.
