Sacha Baron Cohen to play Sherlock Holmes

Just as Sherlock Holmes had his Moriarty, so Guy Ritchie has his Sacha Baron Cohen. Barely a month after the announcement that the British director is to shoot an "all action" Holmes adventure tale comes news of a rival project spearheaded by the Borat creator. Columbia Pictures' as yet untitled production will star Baron Cohen as the great detective and Will Ferrell as Dr Watson, his endlessly admiring assistant. Variety reports that the film is being scripted by Tropic Thunder author Etan Cohen and will be co-produced by Judd Apatow While Ritchie insists that his version will "take advantage of [Holmes's] skills as a boxer and swordsman", the Columbia project looks set to take a more comedic stance. "Just the idea of Sacha and Will as Sherlock Holmes and Watson made us laugh," studio spokesman Matt Tolmach told Variety. "Sacha and Will are two of the funniest and most talented guys on the planet and having them take on these two iconic characters is frankly hilarious." Baron Cohen and Ferrell first collaborated on the 2006 comedy Talladega Nights. Created by the Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1880s, the enigmatic, mercurial Holmes has long been a favourite character for film-makers. He has been portrayed on screen by an eclectic roll-call of actors that runs the gamut from Charlton Heston and Christopher Lee through to Roger Moore and Peter Lawford. The classic Basil Rathbone pictures updated his adventures from Victorian London to the dark days of world war two, while Barry Levinson's Young Sherlock Holmes re-branded him as a plucky boy investigator. However, history suggests that Conan Doyle's adventures are resistant to a purely comic approach. The 1988 comedy, Without a Clue - starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley - died a swift death at the box office.