Oh Look, It's Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law In Old-Timey Clothes: First Pictures From 'Sherlock Holmes 2' Arrive

It must drive studios insane when faraway/blurry photos from highly anticipated films hit the web in advance of official marketing material, but it's hard to keep a lid on set photos these days.

With that in mind here are some, well, faraway/blurry photos of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law on the set of "Sherlock Holmes 2," now filming in England. As you might expect, the duo are attired befitting the era of the film and, well, that's about it. Oh yeah, there is also a horse carriage, a popular mode of conveyance at the time. Plot details on the film are nil at this time except that Moriarty is the villain this time around.

The film starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Stephen Fry and Jared Harris is being directed by Guy Ritchie and will hit theaters on December 16, 2011. For more photos you can head over to Just Jared.

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Robert Downey Jr. To Produce & Star In Old Steve McQueen Heist Project, 'Yucatan'

An old unrealized Steve McQueen project is under new development. There have been several biopics and pictures in the works about the famous actor who passed away in 1980 of cancer, but this is something entirely different.

Anthony Peckham, known for writing "Sherlock Holmes," has been hired by Warner Bros. to write, "Yucatan," which will be the next project shepherded by Team Downey, the production shingle of Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan. Dan Lin of 'Holmes' and "The Box" will also co-produce with the married duo.

The picture will star Downey as a "renegade deep sea salvage expert hired to steal a mysterious hidden treasure hidden deep underwater in the Mayans ruins of Yucutan," according to Deadline. Quickly being known as an in-house WB writer (he also penned"Invictus," and "Book of Eli"), Peckham has been paid a sweet seven figure deal to write this heist project that's been in development over at the studio since 2005.

Never actually written by McQueen, the actor did develop it for years, filling up 15 notebooks with 1500 pages of notes and storyboards that were later discovered by the star's son and godson. It sounds very much in the milieu of '70s heist picture and we'd love to see slow, quiet, hypnotic scenes underwater as you might have seen back then, but that doesn't really seem to be Hollywood's thing anymore.

Peckham is on a major roll of late. He was also recently hired to rewrite the "Moscow" Jack Ryan franchise reboot starring Chris Pine and has several script projects in the works including, "The Limit" which will star Tobey Maguire. We'll be honest, we've read a few of his scripts in the past and they're rather dull and rote, but 'Sherlock' turned out great, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his rewrites are what led Guy Ritchie to roll snake eyes on that one.

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Sam Raimi Confirmed For 'Oz The Great And Powerful,' 'Rabbit Hole' Scribe David Lindsay-Abaire To Rewrite

Shortly after he was announced this summer as the director for Disney's "Oz The Great And Powerful," Sam Raimi quickly poured cold water on reports saying he was still taking a wait-and-see approach as he was also working on the long-in-development adaptation of the massive video game, "World Of Warcraft." Well, Raimi has finally committed to the project in what will certainly big a major franchise project for Disney. But perhaps most intriguingly, the Pulitzer prize winning writer of "Rabbit Hole," David Lindsay-Abaire has been tapped to rewrite the project. And frankly, that's the best news we've heard about this film so far.

We were definitely not so fond of the last draft of the film we read, dated April 2010, by Mitchell Kapner (of "Romeo Must Die," no less). The story begins at the 'Baum & Barley Bros.' Circus in Kansas in the early 1900s. Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, better known as Oz, is a showman and magician at the circus, who's soon caught canoodling with the wife of a customer. When her husband catches them at it, a furious chase follows, ending with Oz fleeing in a hot air balloon. He gets caught in a terrible storm, collapses and wakes up in the magical land of Oz. He's almost immediately greeted by Winkie Men (resembling the Winkie Guards from the original), Winged Monkeys and sweet witch Theodora, who tells him that he's destined to defeat the Wicked Witch, etc. etc.

Lindsay-Abaire may initially seem like an odd choice, but he penned both "Robots" and "Inkheart" so family fare is some very comfortable territory for the writer. But most intriguingly Lindsay-Abaire previously worked with Raimi in the late stages of "Spider-man 4," trying to get the script right prior to that project completely falling apart. As for the long attached Robert Downey Jr., while he's still not yet officially on board, its said he's close to signing on.

Production is slated to begin at some point in 2011 but we would guess that with Downey Jr.'s commitments to both "The Avengers" and Alfonso Cuaron's hopefully-still-happening "Gravity," it will go in front of cameras in the second-half of the year.

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Natalie Portman Now In 'Active Negotiations' For Alfonso Cuaron's 3D Sci-Fi Epic 'Gravity'

Following up the buzz surrounding the her performance in Darren Aronofksy's "Black Swan," Natalie Portman recently became a leading contender and was reportedly offered the lead role in Alfonso Cuaron's 3D sci-fi epic "Gravity."

Little has been heard since of the offer, but buried in a story about the project's co-writer Jonas Cuaron's latest teaming with Warner Bros. and Hollywood Gang — a mysterious, gritty thriller set in Mexico City — THR now reports that Portman is in active negotiations for the role which was declined by Angelina Jolie twice; once when the project was set-up at Universal and again when it was picked up by WB.

Cuaron was apparently clashing with the studio over the casting choice with the suits more interested in a box office queen like Sandra Bullock. On the other hand, the director was prepared to sacrifice the original budgetary plans in the region of $80 million — which included the likes of 60% CGI and a 20-minute single shot opening scene — if it meant he could cast a quality thespian like Portman to spearhead his "Castaway"-esque sci-fi epic. With "active negotiations" now underway, we presume things are at least looking up for Cuaron and the project?

We certainly hope so. While Portman has a number of other potential projects including David O. Russell's "Pride And Prejudice And Zombies" and the Wachowski's "Cloud Atlas," both of those are still in early stages, and her calendar seems flexible at this juncture. With "Gravity" bumped from its initial plan of shooting after "Sherlock Holmes 2" to accommodate co-star Robert Downey Jr., it's now looking to get in front of cameras sometime in 2011, presumably we would think, after "The Avengers" has wrapped. Either way, it's good to see "Gravity" not falling into development hell just yet.

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Will Russell Brand Crop Up In 'Sherlock Holmes 2?'

One of the more pleasant surprises of last year was when Guy Ritchie's take on "Sherlock Holmes," a film we were actively dreading, turned out to be very good indeed: respectful of the character and history, but with enough thrills and spills to let it connect with a contemporary audience, and with the central pairing creating enough chemistry to sustain a franchise. Warner Bros. have been moving full-steam ahead on the sequel all year, with director Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law all set to return for a plot that'll see the detective heroes battle their nemesis Moriarty across Europe.

The cast has been filled out in recent weeks, with "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace coming on board as a 'French gypsy,' and possible love interest for Holmes, and British comedian/national treasure Stephen Fry confirming this past weekend that he'll play Holmes' brother Mycroft, who works for the British secret service. It appears that Rachel McAdams won't be back in a major capacity this time around — no great loss, as, while we're big fans of the actress, she was miscast in the original, and probably the film's weakest link. Now there's news that another English funnyman might be joining the cast.

In the midst of a mind-bogglingly thrilling report on Russell Brand's bachelor party, The Daily Mail has revealed that, the morning after, the stand-up-turned-actor was up early for a trip to Guy Ritchie's house "to discuss whether he would have a role in Ritchie's upcoming film 'Sherlock Holmes 2.'" Furthermore, the paper pictures Brand dancing his way out of the house afterwards, suggesting the meeting may have gone well, and we may see the "Get Him To The Greek" star in the film.

British tabloids are notoriously unreliable on things like this, but the circumstantial evidence here seems strong, and, while their politics and journalism are, in most aspects, totally reprehensible, The Daily Mail usually have a little more nous in the showbiz world than most, so we're inclined to give the report the benefit of the doubt.

We imagine that some kind of comic relief sidekick role is in the works for Brand. While it remains to be seen if the flamboyant star can maintain any kind of career longevity, we were actually hugely impressed by his performance in "Get Him To The Greek," the script and cast for his "Arthur" remake next year are strong enough that it should be a big hit, and he's broadening his horizons by appearing in Julie Taymor's "The Tempest." While that film was coolly met by Venice critics, on the whole, they were fairly polite about Brand.

He certainly won't be playing Professor Moriarty, at least — no casting's yet been announced on that one. Names linked to the part included Gary Oldman, Sean Penn and Javier Bardem, but the one that keeps recurring is Daniel Day-Lewis. While we were originally very skeptical that the project would hold any interest for the notoriously picky actor, we've received decent intel that Day-Lewis may indeed take the role — although it's worth noting that, as of last week, sources inside the production were claiming ignorance of any firm casting for the character. With filming due to start in a few weeks, we'll know soon enough.

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Stephen Fry To Play Mycroft In 'Sherlock Holmes 2'

Brit wit and all around hilarious dude Stephen Fry took the opportunity this morning on Danny Baker's BBC's 5 Live radio show to announce that he will have a role in Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes 2."

Fry will join the cast that includes the returning Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law along with new face Noomi Rapace, and will take on the role of Mycroft Holmes. That's right, he'll be the older brother of Sherlock which will undoubtedly lead some to some mad riffing between Downey Jr. and Fry who are both adept improvisers. Sounds very, very promising. Here's what Fry had to say about his part:

I’m playing Mycroft in the sequel to the Sherlock Holmes film Guy Ritchie directed with Robert Downey Jr., and that sort of part is fun, but just once in a while to play a genuine all round sort of lead figure with complexity and tragedy and wit and all the sort of things that Oscar [Wilde] had was a once in a lifetime thrill.

The big piece of the casting puzzle still to be figured is the role of Moriarty, which everyone seems to want Daniel Day Lewis to take (though we'd surprised — but pleasantly so — if he decided to take it).

"Sherlock Holmes 2" will shoot this fall and is already set for a December 16, 2011 release. [Bleeding Cool]

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Watch: 'Iron Man 2' Alternate Opening Finds Tony Stark Not Feeling So Hot

We've always liked that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) seemed to be even more damaged than your average damaged superhero, but it's easy to see why this alternate opening, that will be found on the upcoming "Iron Man 2" DVD/BluRay was initially scrapped.

This revised opening introduces the hero of the film post-puke, hovering over a toilet bowl. Yeah, we get it, Tony Stark is a bit of miss but director Jon Favreau wisely realized that this was a bit much. The scene continues with our nauseous hero badgering Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) for something, anything to cure his uneasy stomach. Yeah, it's a not a very good scene as a whole, and again, no surprise they went in a different direction.

Anyhow, you can see this scene and lots more when "Iron Man 2" hits home video on September 28th. [JoBlo]

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