Downey is Sherlock!

What’s up, Holmes? Robert Downey Jr., that’s what.

Downey will star as the titular sleuth in Guy Ritchie’s SHERLOCK HOLMES movie. The Warner Bros. project is, obviously, the latest version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective. This probably won’t come as a surprise, but Ritchie’s version will incorporate plenty of fisticuffs among the deductive reasoning (plus plenty of characters with descriptive names, no doubt). Should be interesting to see who they land for Watson and Moriarty.

Downey has also recently been pursued to play Hugh Hefner, mystery novel detective Travis McGee, and a random Old West cowboy fighting aliens, but clearly he couldn’t resist a paid opportunity to wear a deerstalker cap. Who could? That’s just elementary.

SHERLOCK will be Downey’s next project which, coupled with Marvel’s noted lack of commitment in securing director Jon Favreau for a sequel, leaves Tony Stark fans pondering the likelihood of seeing IRON MAN 2 on the already-announced May 2010 release date.