We've seen a single image of Ian McKellen in his Sherlock Holmes garb for Bill Condon's Mr. Holmes. Now here's the first still from the actual shoot, showing the once-great detective turned beekeeping Sussex retiree in conversation with his housekeeper's son Roger, played by Milo Parker. Once again, there's not a deerstalker in sight. It's not that sort of Holmes film...
Mr. Holmes is based on Mitch Cullin's 2006 novel A Slight Trick Of The Mind and has been adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess). The book takes place in 1947 when Holmes is 93, long retired to Sussex and his bees and frustrated by his diminishing power of recollection. He believes his bees' royal jelly is part of the secret of his longevity, and his further researches into the subject have recently taken him to post-war Japan. There he encounters the son of a former British diplomat who knew Holmes and disappeared at the start of the war. Holmes doesn't remember, but feels the familiar pull of an unfinished case.
The novel weaves together three narratives: Sussex, Japan, and the (also still unsolved) Case Of The Glass Armonicist: a London tale from 1902 when Holmes was still active as a consulting detective. As with The Blanched Soldier and The Lion's Mane, Holmes narrates The Glass Armonicist himself.{Mr. Holmes}
Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (The King's Speech) are among Mr. Holmes' producers, along with head of BBC Films Christine Langan and Archer Gray Productions' Anne Carey (The American).
Laura Linney is Holmes' housekeeper Mrs. Munro (Mrs Hudson being long gone by this point), mother of the pictured boy with whom Holmes strikes a cautious friendship. Colin Starkey plays Doctor Watson, but don't expect to see much of him. Watson is only occasionally and fleetingly mentioned in the novel: long dead by the time of the main story and off with a wife in the flashback section.
Hiroyuki Sanada, Patrick Kennedy, Roger Allam, Philip Davis and Frances de la Tour are elsewhere in the cast, and there's also a cameo from Young Sherlock Holmes' Nicholas Rowe.
Mr. Holmes is currently in post-production and will premier at the Berlin Film Festival next month. There are no other release dates so far, but if you want to get prepared, Cullin's novel is published in the UK by Canongate.