Downey’s Detective Days

Ever since coming out of rehab, Robert Downey Jnr has been looking around for a film project to relaunch his career. Now it seems he has one in a film remake of the BBC's Singing Detective. Based on the play by the late Dennis Potter, Downey Jnr will be required to spend many hours in make-up if he's to match Michael Gambon's towering performance in the 1986 series. The detective in question is hospitalised with a severe case of psoriasis where, unable to hold even a pen, he begins to mentally build up a screenplay for a WWII screenplay. The film, according to Variety, will begin shooting this April for Mel Gibson's Icon Productions. It's a sign of the long-standing friendship between Gibson and Downey Jnr that Gibson has put up the money and backing for Downey Jnr's return to the big screen.