Trivia / Sherlock Holmes (2009)

• Ability over Appearance: Robert Downey Jr.. being cast as Holmes despite looking completely different from his descriptions in the stories.
• The Cast Show Off: Downey Jr is an avid Wing Chun practitioner in real life, crediting it with helping him maintain his sobriety, and uses a lot of blocks, traps and strikes from it in his fight scenes here.
• Deleted Scene: So, Irene never got around to trying to stab Holmes with a hair pin or kneeing him in the... meerschaum, eh?
• Development Hell: There has been talks for a third film for a while, to be directed by Dexter Fletcher, but the COVID-19 Pandemic seemingly put the project on hold, in addition to Robert Downey Jr. being busy elsewhere. Read more here.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Robert Downey Jr. did this movie in between the first two Iron Man movies. Look at how beefy Tony Stark is compared to how wire-thin Holmes is. That takes dedication.
• Fake American: Canadians Rachel McAdams and William Hope play American characters.
• Fake Brit: Robert Downey Jr. spent hours perfecting his English accent as Sherlock Holmes.
• Fake Nationality: Robert Maillet (better known by his wrestling alias Kurrgan) is Canadian from Québec and plays a large French bad guy.
• Fandom Nod: In the extended preview (aired during the Monk series finale), there's yet another clip of the Holmes-Watson Vitriolic Best Buds routine, then a cut to Adler going "They've been flirting like this for hours."
• Referenced by...: Canadian figure skater Stephen Gogolev performed to the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack for his long program during the 2018-2019 competitive season.
• Trolling Creator: Rachel McAdams tried to trick the wardrobe department by eating a large breakfast in the morning or pushing out her stomach during fitting - in the hopes of her corset not being tied so tight. They eventually caught on to her ruse.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Judging by the early trailers, a lot of stuff was cut or changed by the film's release. The girl Blackwood was going to "sacrifice" was apparently going to start floating in mid-air (whether this was going to be part of Holmes' drug trip later in the film is unknown), and Irene Adler was going to try and seduce Holmes by stripping into a showgirl dress, try to stab him with a hairpin, then knee him in the crotch.
  • Sienna Miller was in talks to star in the film, possibly as Mary. But when Jude Law was cast as Watson, this was quietly dropped - due to the couple's very public break-up when Law had an affair with their nanny.
  • Sam Worthington and Colin Farrell were in talks to play Watson before Law was cast.

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