Cast your mind back to last week, when, out stumping for Captain America: Civil War, Robert Downey Jr. dropped word that he and director Guy Ritchie are attempting to make a third Sherlock Holmes this year. News has arrived via Deadline that James Coyne has been hired to re-write the script.
A third Holmes has been in loose development since before 2011's Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows saw the inside of cinemas but until recently, Iron Man 3's Drew Pearce has been the only writer credited with getting a script ready to shoot. Coyne, who has worked as an actor, writer, producer and director, came to the Sherlock team's attention when he wrote a new adaptation of Treasure Island for producer Lionel Wigram and Warner Bros.
The hopes are to get to the new Sherlock before the year is out, which is tricky given the schedules of Downey, Ritchie and the films' Watson, Jude Law. But they all seem committed to the idea, and Law told Empire last year that the third movie would be "smarter and cleverer, but in the same realm” as its two predecessors. The game is afoot! (Again).