Memorable versions of Sherlock Holmes

With the announcement of yet a new Sherlock Holmes film, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, which will coexist with Cumberbatch's Sherlock, Jonny Lee Miller's Elementary and possibly a third Robert Downey Jr movie, some might think that the world might get an overdose of Arthur Conan Doyle's character (not to mention the recent movie with Ian McKellen). In other terms, who needs Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein? The answer is simple: Sherlock Holmes being everywhere is not a recent trend. In fact, Sherlock Holmes NOT being everywhere is just an anomaly that lasted about a decade (roughly, 1999-2009). Otherwise, the character has been seen in countless movies, stage plays, books and comic books, and the thirst for new iterations and variants seems to be inextinguishable.

I won't try to list every film and TV version ever produced, nor will I respect chronological order. I would just like to share which versions affected me most, and are most likely to influence my take on Holmes and Watson (besides, of course, the original stories by Conan Doyle.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my very first contacts with the world of Sherlock Holmes was through Disney's cartoon The Great Mouse Detective. At the same time, TV was also showing the Japanese anime Sherlock Hound, which I also enjoyed a lot. Basil and the Japanese Holmes had the same kind of personality: clever, bold and youthful, with a physical energy propelled by their mental agitation. Both were a good introduction to the "real" Holmes.

Not long after, I discovered Granada's series with Jeremy Brett, which was probably showing for the first time in France. I had recorded The Sign of Four on VHS, and probably watched it hundreds of times. I started reading the books then, and in my mind, Brett was definitely the Sherlock Holmes described in these pages. At 8 years old, I saw the "other" Sign of Four of the 80s, where Holmes was played by Ian Richardson: the actor was definitely appropriate for the part, but the productions he was in didn't stand a chance in front of Granada's.

Other cinematic encounters I had at a young age with Holmes were The Seven-per-cent Solution and the Spielberg production Young Sherlock Holmes. Both were surprising takes on the character, and I found it refreshing that filmmakers could take the liberty of pairing Holmes with Sigmund Freud, or to make up an early encounter with John Watson in high school. I never thought that Nicol Williamson was fit to play Sherlock Holmes, but he did a good job of playing a coke-head detective who falls in love while following a therapy.

When I started watching Hammer movies, I particularly enjoyed The Hound of the Baskervilles with the great Peter Cushing playing the Baker Street sleuth. I think the only complain I had with the film, when I first saw it, was that Holmes was shorter than Henry Baskerville (played by Christopher Lee). I've moved past this detail, especially since I've seen Cushing in other Holmes productions (the BBC series and the TV special Masks of Death): even when the quality was a bit flimsy, he embodied the character perfectly.

I also loved A Study in Terror, where John Neville played Sherlock Holmes on the trail of Jack the Ripper. Probably my favorite non-canonical Holmes movies. There were numerous stories revolving around Holmes investigating the Ripper murders, one of the best in my opinion being Michael Dibdin's novel The Last Sherlock Holmes Story. It was turned into a terrific comic book in 2010. Holmes has the face of Jeremy Brett in this fine piece of work by French authors Olivier Cotte and Jules Stromboni.

Sherlock in New York is a guilty pleasure: the plot is weak and the production values are far from epic, but the casting is extremely entertaining: Roger Moore as Sherlock Holmes (what an odd choice)! Patrick Macnee as Watson! John Huston as Moriarty! Charlotte Rampling as Irene Adler!

The last iteration of the character that really impressed me was Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I wasn't too sure about the idea of moving the stories to our time, but it works perfectly, and the scripts are as enjoyable as the performances. Elementary, on the other hand, did nothing for me, as I felt it was just another American procedural show ala Bones, Mentalist or Castle.

And yes, I love Christopher Lee of course, but I don't think he really fits the part of Holmes, even when paired with a good Watson played by Patrick Macnee.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is not a walk in the park. If you just set up a page and leave it there for a month, you can't expect people to show up and contribute out of nowhere. So you have to work constantly on your campaign, sharpen your communication skills... and unless you have a whole team working with you, you will probably get behind schedule. I wanted to keep posting on this blog throughout the campaign, sharing thoughts and updates, talking about Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein films in general, etc. But here we are, 4 days to the end, and this is the first article I write!

Let's share the Indiegogo link right here, because we don't want to forget that piece of information: http://igg.me/at/holmes-vs-frank

The campaign has been very rewarding so far: the goal has been met with time to spare, and now we've raised the bar to €40,000. A lot of people have shown support, sometimes unexpectedly. Many people from the French Sherlock Holmes Society (SSHF) have contributed, and Belgian Sherlockian artist Jean-Claude Mornard has been extremely enthusiastic and generous. Other supports have included famed Sherlock Holmes specialists Roger Johnson, Leslie Klinger, Howard Ostrom and the Baker Street Babes (sounds like a band), Charles Prepolec, David Whitehead - some of them are also Frankenstein or Hammer fans. My first feature film House of VHS has been screened for the first time three days ago, and several people contributed to the campaign after watching it – sometimes with a big sum, which can be considered a good sign!

People have different reasons for contributing – some of them want to see Shane Briant's return as Simon Helder, others want Ben Syder in a Holmes movie again, and others just like what they've seen of the project so far. Once the campaign is over, it will be my responsibility to make everyone happy, and deliver a movie that is entertaining, respectful and unique. And hopefully it will be able to please even the ones who have been snarling at the mere sight of the title.

In four days the campaign will be over, and the amount raised at that date will determine the leverage we will have to raise additional funds and make the film. So the higher it is, the easier it will be to get a big budget and an exciting movie. And it's important to have a list of names to show when financiers ask: “WHO WANTS TO SEE SHERLOCK HOLMES VS FRANKENSTEIN?” Well, do you?

Not dead! Alive!

On this day in 1891, Sherlock Holmes met his doom at Reichenbach Fall... Or did he? Everyone thought him dead for several years, after his battle against Professor Moriarty. But he returned, as if brought back to life by a mad scientist à la Frankenstein.

In a very similar way, the project “Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein” was thought dead for a while. But there's no way I would throw in the towel on this story. There are too many people involved, too many wanting to see it, and hell, even I want to see it more than anyone else!

Finishing my first feature film Houseof VHS took forever, partly because I had to fight off my business partner and say goodbye to a 20-year-old friendship. Also because there was less and less money available, for a movie that barely had any budget to begin with. Also, on a much lighter side, because I had my second child last year. All of this took up a lot of time and energy, and sometimes it seemed that my hair would turn white before the movie would be finished. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to meet a bunch of people who were passionate, creative and talented enough to bring the project to its completion.

Now it's time for Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein to make its comeback. So far, financiers have asked “have you ever made a feature film before?” and “who wants to see a movie called Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein?”. The answer to the first question is now “Yes”, and I hope to prove that the answer to the second is “A lot of people”. In order to do that, we will run a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo from May 25^th to June 25^th, and try to raise the first chunk of the budget.

So if you wish to see the movie come to life, you can have a hand in that by supporting the campaign, not only by donating on May 25^th, but also by posting messages, videos or pictures and by stating loud and clear “I want to see Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein!”

To be continued...

2009: Zorro vs Sherlock Holmes

While filming the last William Boquet, two major things happened: I moved in with the woman whom I would eventually marry, and I decided to write a new ambitious script about two iconic characters. Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein? Nope, I wasn't there yet. The initial project was Zorro vs Sherlock Holmes.

I've always been fond of time-defying characters: Robin Hood, Dracula, the Three Musketeers... And Zorro of course. Before I even thought of being a writer-director, I wanted to be an actor. To play Zorro. And before that, I wanted to be Zorro himself. So the concept of having him and Holmes meet and fight seemed exciting. Both swordsmen, one of them cultivating mysteries, the other solving them. Of course the timeframe wouldn't allow Sherlock Holmes to meet Don Diego de la Vega in his prime, but he could easily meet his grandson – which was the setup for this script.

Holmes and Watson, in their early years (not long after A Study a Scarlet), travel to California in order to unmask a dangerous criminal who calls himself Zorro. Of course, they eventually find out that he's fighting the good fight, against a corrupt local government. Together, they retrieve a treasure that had been unfairly confiscated from the Indian people, and they bring down the evil military in an epic final swordfight. Or something like that. I was really excited about this project. I had re-read the whole Sherlock Holmes Canon, as well as Johnston McCulley's original Zorro novel. I had spent hours watching films about both characters, in order to sort out what made them interesting.

But despite having a beginning and an end, the story was hard to put together. Why would the evil military call Sherlock Holmes to help them? Why would Zorro need him to overpower the bad guys? How could the viewer be excited by Holmes unmasking Zorro, when his identity would already be known to him? And if we hide it from him, by having several “potential Zorros”, then how will the viewer care for this character? And most of all: how is there going to be a foe charismatic enough to stand in front of two legends? 

John Neville as Holmes

A lot of those questions derived from the fact that Holmes and Zorro are both positive characters, who can't really be opposed unless one of them loses the audience's sympathy. It's like having a movie called Batman vs Superman (oh wait!), you know that they will eventually join forces. So unless you have a great villain, someone that the viewer already knows, it kind of falls flat because your heroes won't be fighting a big threat. I didn't want to bring Moriarty into the plot, it was against my rules – which rules, you might ask? Watching and reading non-canonical Holmes stories, I have observed that most of them (if not all!) featured one or more of the following characters: Irene Adler, Mycroft Holmes and/or Professor Moriarty. I ended up finding it very annoying, since these characters are only featured once or twice over the course of 60 stories written by Conan Doyle. Hell, Moriarty is often believed to be Sherlock's recurring nemesis, when he's only the main antagonist in one short story (and one that seems to have been hastily written by Conan Doyle in order to kill off his detective). Watson doesn't even get to meet him in person! As for Irene Adler, a lot of versions want us to believe that Holmes and her have been romantically involved, to the point where they're sometimes supposed to have a child together. But in A Scandal in Bohemia, Watson clearly states: “It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind.” In fact, several stories have Holmes fall in love, with Adler or someone else, when that goes against all 60 canonical adventures! Bottom line is: I decided that if I was to write a Sherlock Holmes story, I wouldn't use Irene Adler, Mycroft or Moriarty.

While I was struggling with the plot, looking for a way to make it worthwhile (without letting Holmes or Zorro become the other's supporting character), I stumbled upon the information that Zorro wasn't public domain property. It belonged to the Zorro Estate, who probably wouldn't allow the character to be used in a crossover with another hero. In the 60s, Zorro had been confronted to Maciste, the Three Musketeers, and even naked women in a few soft-porn movies, but the copyright-holders had straightened the line in the 90s with “mainstream” productions such as the Antonio Banderas movies, the book by Isabel Allende or the recent musical show. So here I was, stuck with a story that didn't quite work and a character that possibly could be an obstacle to making the film even if I sorted out the plot. So I started toying around with the idea of replacing him with another mysterious avenger, probably the Scarlet Pimpernel – which would have moved the plot to France.

But one day, lightning struck. It was the end of February, 2010. I was sitting in a movie theater, in front of a French comedy that didn't have my full attention. Suddenly, I thought of Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein. It didn't have anything to do with what I was watching. It was just a title that popped up. During the last 30 minutes of the screening, the main elements of the script came together in my head. When the credits hit the screen, I left the theater (which I usually don't do, I like to stay until the very end – even for movies I don't like!) and rushed home, where my 6-month pregnant wife saw me go straight to my desk, take a pen and paper, and write down the outline for this new script. It all felt so obvious, that I couldn't understand why it hadn't occurred to me earlier: Sherlock Holmes and Watson would travel to Germany, not California or France. And they would have to unmask a mad scientist, one who would have created a giant monster. It made perfect sense: Holmes was the hero, the monster was a menace and the identity of the mad scientist was the mystery to solve. Now I knew the direction I was headed. I just didn't realize how long the journey would be.

The early years

Sherlock Holmes. Frankenstein. Sherlock Holmes VERSUS Frankenstein. The film project has been floating around for some time now, and there have been questions lately about whether it's still alive. The answer is: it's been around for much longer than one might think, and yes, it's ALIVE... ALIIIIVE. But assembling a budget for a film is very comparable to piecing together a body from the right elements: you need to dig up coffins at night, with the risks that go with it. Risk of not having the strength or the tools to dig. Risk of being stopped in your endeavour. Risk of not finding the right body parts in the coffin you spent hours unearthing. Risk of having one part rot while you unearth the next. Finally, risk of not succeeding in breathing life in the body you manage to assemble in your secret lab.

But before you even start digging, you need a plan. And even before that, you need to be seized by the urge to devise this plan. Let me tell you the whole story, the path that led from watching films as a kid to trying to make them as an adult. It's a long and bumpy road, and it's still under construction.

1986-1989

It all begun in kindergarten. I had been watching Miyazake's cartoon Sherlock Hound on TV for some time, and I enjoyed it more than most other cartoons of that time (except Thundercats!), but nothing had prepared me for The Great Mouse Detective. I saw it in a theater when it first came out, which might have been for my 5th birthday – since the film was released in France in late November 1986, and my birthday is in early December. The setting (Victorian England!), the exciting music and the unforgettable characters (the evil Ratigan had an amazing song that ended with one of his henchmen being fed to a huge cat) stuck with me, to the point where I wanted to set up a show at school, where we would have recreated the streets of London in the hall, and disguised the children as mice and rats. It didn't go farther than a few talks with my parents because, let's face it, I didn't have the chops to stage a theater play at the age of 5.

Fast forward: this time I know it was a birthday, my 8th. I must have been a Sherlock Holmes geek by then, because my presents were a deerstalker hat and a VHS tape of The Sign of Four (the one with Ian Richardson). I was able to compare it to Granada's version of the story, which I had already watched countless times. I loved the Holmes series with Jeremy Brett,

8-year-old me

even though I found it extremely scary and disturbing at time (I remember The Greek Interpreter as being a source of nightmares). I probably didn't understand everything, but the character of Sherlock Holmes as played by Brett was one I could relate to – distant and centered on his own vision, yet keen on doing the right thing and on helping his fellow men, even when it meant ignoring the law. He also went into disguise on numerous occasions, which was one of my favourite hobbies at that time.

Less than three weeks after that birthday, Christmas came along. I must have had a number of presents, but there's only one I can remember to this day: a pocket edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (a French translation of course, and one that might have been simplified a bit). The story was compelling, and much more complex than I thought it would be: the name Frankenstein was known to me from its presence in everyday's culture, as a generic speechless monster with a flat head, and I was surprised to learn that Frankenstein was actually the creator's name – and the creature was more of a man than a monster. The questions of identity and loneliness resonated in me at that time, and I remember being partial to the Creature, who had a revenge to take on a world who didn't understand him. Victor Frankenstein, in my eyes, was an irresponsible asshole who should have thought twice before giving life to a being he wasn't ready to care for. Growing up, I became more interested in Victor's character, who goes through a tough journey: driven by passion, he makes a mistake as a young man, practically a teenager, and then realizes that he will never be free from his mistake. Not until he dies. There are so many ways to interpret Frankenstein, as a story of fatherhood, creation, life, love and death, that you could read it every year and see a new side to it each time.

1991-1994

It was not until I was 10 that I saw my first Frankenstein film. It was of course the 1931 classic with Boris Karloff, and I finally met the flat-headed monster that I had been aware of before even reading the novel. I enjoyed the movie for what it was – a dry, expressionist version of the story that focused on a few aspects while discarding a lot of the book's elements for entertainment's sake. At that time, I felt it was oversimplifying the monster's story by making him speechless. Then a week later, I saw Bride of Frankenstein and although I loved that they introduced the blind violin player, I revised my idea that the Monster had to speak – Karloff chatting with Ernest Thesiger in a vault was too comedic for my serious 10-year-old self. Now I enjoy all of Universal's Frankenstein movies, and I get the humor and greatness in Bride – but the first entry still holds a special place in my heart.

In November 1994, my father took me to a theater play called La Nuit du Crime, where the audience had to sort out who the murderer was. It was sponsored by the newly created 'Société Sherlock Holmes de France', and my solving the case earned me a diploma that made me a “honorary member”. Maybe this is when it all started!..