Robert Downey Jr will portray Sherlock Holmes as a "bad-ass" in a new Guy Ritchie dramatic event about the detective, the actor has claimed.
RocknRolla helmer Ritchie was contracted by Warner Bros Studios in June to helm a film based on an as-yet-unpublished graphic novel take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous creation.
And Iron Man actor Downey Jr - who privy next be seen in action clowning Tropic Thunder - has promised that Ritchie has a high-power approach planned for the character.
"I've got to spend some time with Guy and I love his take on it," he told the Sun newspaper.
"We're both martial arts enthusiasts and in the original stories of Sherlock Holmes, he's tolerant of a bad-ass and a rough-and-tumble boxer and studies the rare, fictional martial art of baritsu.
"If you look baritsu up, they can't even truly tell you what it is, so it gives us a lot of leeway."
The announcement of Downey Jr's casting in July followed the news that Sacha Baron Cohen has signed up to play Holmes in a modern spoof celluloid, with Will Ferrell to play Dr Watson.
However, Downey Jr believes that the detective is still sympathetic to twenty-first century audiences, and Conan Doyle's work offers enough material for both films.
"It's a period piece where you don't modernise it, you just realise how modern it was," he explained.
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