It was arguably 1998’s Gods & Monsters that turned Ian McKellen from a well-loved British stage actor into a movie star (with his Oscar nomination for the movie certainly helping). Now he’s reteaming with the director of that movie, Bill Condon, for Mr. Holmes, about Sherlock Homes when he’s in his 90s.
Now the social media savvy McKellen has shared the first image from the film via Twitter, which you can see above, along with the message, ‘Over 70 actors have previously played Sherlock Holmes. Now he’s 93 years old and it’s my turn.’
When McKellen signed up for the film last September it was called A Slight Trick of the Mind. However now it’s Mr. Holmes and he’ll play a retired Sherlock Holmes, who in 1947 is retired and lives in a sleepy Sussex village with his housekeeper and her amateur-sleuthing son. But far from living out a peaceful retirement, he is haunted by an unsolved case from 50 years ago. He remembers only fragments: a confrontation with an angry husband, a secret bond with his beautiful but unstable wife.
With his legendary mental powers on the wane, and without his old sidekick Watson, Holmes is faced with the toughest case of his life a case that might finally reveal to him the mysteries of the human heart.
Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess) wrote the screenplay adaptation, based on Mitch Cullins novel. It’ll be in cinemas next year.