Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Now that we’re in the final stretch of the Holiday season it is right to finally publish this one on three chat I did at Comic-Con with the producers of Sherlock Holmes: mega producer Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram and Susan Downey.
I also had the opportunity to chat with Susan’s husband and star, Robert alongside the lovely and amazing Rachel McAdams while the Con was on. You can check out that interview here if you missed it.
Of course, being a Comic-Con interview it’s only 10 minutes long, so we don’t get a chance to get in-depth on anything in particular, but it’s a good, quick read. I could read the passion instantly on their faces, especially Wigram who fostered this film from infancy.
Enjoy!
Susan Downey: Do you write under a certain name on the site?
Quint: I’m Quint.
Susan Downey: Oh, you are Quint. Alright. Sorry I didn’t know that.
Quint: That’s alright.
Susan Downey: I read it all of the time.
Quint: Thanks! We watch your movies all of the time, so it works out. I thought the footage looked really great. Drew [McWeeney] got to spend all of that time on the set and I was so insanely jealous of him!
Susan Downey: We took good care of him.
Joel Silver: But he’s gone now. He’s a non-person, right?
Quint: He’s at Hitfix, but he is here.
Joel Silver: But he’s a non-person for Ain’t It Cool News.
Quint: Well, he broke our hearts, but we have moved past it.
Susan Downey: But he was “Moriarty,” so he got a little special treatment.
Quint: Of course, there was no better person to go. He’s still Moriarity and his pieces were great.
Joel Silver: They are great stories.
Quint: He knocked those out of the park. That’s why I was saying I was so insanely jealous of it, because just the way he was writing about it made me want to be there, you know?
Susan Downey: Yeah, it was fun. He got to see some good stuff. He was there for slaughterhouse stuff.
Quint: What I really dug about the footage and what you guys said on the panel today was how you were talking about how the story kind of merges occult stuff with Sherlock and I was just telling Robert [Downey Jr.] and Rachel [McAdams] that I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff, like that’s why I love RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK so much. I love that kind of merging of occult and how it’s kind of based in reality and actual fact.
Joel Silver: We don’t have Sherlock Holmes rolling down a hill in a refrigerator, though.
Quint: That would be amazing though. Save it for a sequel! So, how did the occult element evolve?
Lionel Wigram: Really the inspiration was Aleister Crowley and our bad guy Blackwood takes over a secret society, which isn’t that similar to The Order of The Golden Dawn, which is what Crowley did. Obviously Crowley was the starting point, but what our bad guy does is much more dramatic and much more flamboyant and of course there’s always that thing of “Is it real or is it not?” We very much wanted to explore the idea of the guru and of the person who interests other people by being able to do magical supernatural stuff and what that means.
Quint: And pairing that with somebody like Holmes who is so intellectual, I think is going to make it very interesting.
Lionel Wigram: As you know, Conan Doyle was a big into the occult and all of that kind of stuff. He attended séances and all of that kind of stuff, so that felt very real and obviously THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES explores that.
Quint: And that’s the story that is probably most associated with Holmes.
Lionel Wigram: That’s right, people love the occult. They want to believe in magic and that’s one of the themes of our story.
Quint: What also intrigued me on the panel was how you were talking about using a comic book version to get the movie sold, which is fascinating to me, because ten years ago that would have hurt you, that wouldn’t of helped you, you know? But now putting it in that art form…
Joel Silver: But Warners understands comic books, you see?
Susan Downey: It’s their language.
Joel Silver: They got it, so it took Lionel actually spending his own money to create a more or less galley of a comic book for them to see the cover with Sherlock Holmes with a knife in one hand and a gun in the other and that was when they said “Oh, we get it!”
Quint: At that point was Guy [Ritchie] involved or was that later?
Lionel Wigram: Not at that point. I had always pitched it as the Guy Ritchie version of a Sherlock Holmes movie, because that was the best way I could think of to distinguish it and give it a sense of style.
Joel Silver: LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN didn’t help us either, but it was the idea of taking this character that people knew so well and had such familiarity to him and then really bring him to a contemporary kind of story with characters who would be accessible, but at the same time keep the 1891 appearance.
Quint: Bringing someone like Guy in I’m sure helped the money guys to not worry that it was jus going to be a stodgy…
Joel Silver: And ROCKNROLLA helped that too.
Susan Downey: They just get to shift their concerns and say, “But can he handle something that big?” They just get a whole new set of concerns, but yeah they definitely didn’t fear it was going to be stuffy anymore, but yeah basically the comic book gave Lionel the greenlight to go write a script, which he did and then that script, they did some more work on it with a new writer, which then led to everybody else’s involvement and then we kept working on the material as we were getting into preproduction and everything.
Lionel Wigram: These things are evolving and what Guy and Robert brought to the process and Susan and Joel… This team came together and just took what I had done and elevated it to a whole new level. It’s so much better and richer and fantastic.
Joel Silver: You watched the footage today?
Quint: I did. I thought it looked great. I loved the fight scene, because you had only seen the slow motion version of that before and…
Susan Downey: And now you know how it pays off…
Quint: I remember Drew talking about that, too. He was like people got worried that it doesn’t feel like Sherlock Holmes and he was like “Wait until you see it in context, because it’s not just about a showoff fight.”
Lionel Wigram: Also Sherlock Holmes is a bare knuckle fighter, in the books he is referred to as that.
Quint: Exactly.
Joel Silver: And the studio was concerned about that at the outset. They were saying, “Will people really understand and like bare knuckle fighting?” They love it.
Quint: It works and you heard the reaction from the people whenever you have that great slow motion moment, which is badass in and of itself and then when you just see him do it in real time… I loved it.
Susan Downey: And that was even a slightly cut down version of the scene for the purposes of this reel, so it breaths even a bit more… I think there are a lot of nice beats like that you will see in the movie where we manage to combine the character and the action and that’s a very important element for both Guy and Robert, because I think they both have seen enough movies that just have a bunch of “Now is the time for the action beat” and sometimes it’s really entertaining if you have a great second unit guy it’s really cool and all of that, but other times it just becomes a blur of images and you just go for a rollercoaster ride and then you join the story again. For both of them, it was always really important that we always integrated the two, so I think through every action beat you are going to see the characters being informed as well, which is something that we are proud of.
Quint: That’s crucial though. All of the stuff that you remember, going back to the films that I grew up with that (Joel) produced, that I worship… I think that’s really central to a lot of the best action films. That’s what sells it and it kind of evolves it beyond action.
Joel Silver: There’s a key line in LETHAL WEAPON where they say “Can we go on three? So does that mean we go on three or is it one, two and then three or do we go on…” the idea of kind of dealing with those conventions. We are going back to the beginning of that, before it started and we do this thing we call packing and unpacking in this story where you will see things happen and then later on Sherlock will unpack that and show you what you saw, because he sees everything and the one line in the movie, where (Watson) says “How did you see that?” and (Holmes) is like “Well, I was looking for it.” That kind of attitude.
Look, I think it’s a strong picture. It’s smart. It’s fun. It’s got scale and I think it’s what the audience wants to see and they want to see everyone in it doing what they are doing and I think we deliver.
Quint: I think your biggest challenge, after getting the funding in place obviously, was executing a friendship which has survived over a century now.
Joel Silver: It’s a hundred and twenty two years old, this story…
Quint: Not only from Drew’ piece, but also from what I’ve been able to see with my own eyes, it’s like it seems that the unlikely casting… When people think of the mythology of Sherlock Holmes they don’t usually think of Watson as somebody Jude Law would play, but it seems like they are perfectly complimenting each other and he is Watson.
Joel Silver: They are great.
Susan Downey: I think that’s going to be the thing that surprises people the most, because with Robert having come off IRON MAN, I think people were surprised and he’s sort of had his time and now there is an expectation. I think he fulfills that expectation and that’s good news, but I think with Jude, he hasn’t had that opportunity to shine and blow people’s mind.
He so nails Watson and he’s so good and so entertaining and their performance together is that kind of thing you can see a bunch of times and always find something new and to me that just says that there are really good performances that are layered characters, because you discover a new layer each time.
Quint: I can tell you I have see the trailer probably before a dozen movies now and to each audience, it gets a laugh, the final line with the pillow. Every audience is uproarious.
Susan Downey: Did you tell Robert that?
Quint: No.
Susan Downey: He would quickly tell you that he wrote that line. He is very proud of that. (laughs)
Joel Silver: (laughs) The trailer that’s with the HARRY POTTER movie doesn’t have that ending, because that’s a little too sophisticated for the… It’s also a very funny ending, but it’s not that one.
Quint: I remember it’s him in the carriage, right?
Susan Downey: Yeah, it’s when Watson punches him and he’s all pissed off.
Quint: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Joel Silver: Thank you.
Susan Downey: Absolutely. I’m glad you like it!
Quint: I can’t wait to see the whole thing!
These Comic-Con interviews are super short, so we only scratched the surface. Having now seen the flick I would have gone back and focused mostly on the chemistry between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. They are so great together and, I’d wager, the reason why this film will live past this Holiday weekend (which is supposed to be massive if tracking and buzz is to be considered).
Hope you guys enjoyed it! Keep an eye out for my review of the flick! Hitting before Christmas!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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