When Robert Downey Jr. announced yesterday that he wouldn't be making the upcoming comic book flick, Cowboys & Aliens, we speculated that it might be because a sequel to Sherlock Holmes was on the fast-track. It now appears that's true, and that according to Entertainment Weekly, it'll start shooting in June.
Although the movie hasn't been officially greenlit, with Guy Ritchie's first Holmes movie nearing $300 million at the box office, getting the go-ahes from Warner Bros. is seen as a formality. Kieran and Michele Mulroney were set to work on the sequel script before the first film came out (which is becoming increasingly common, with Hollywood trying to minimise the amount of time between sequels), and so it should be ready to shoot fairly soon.
Warner is now busy locking down all the main actors for a June start date. As that's when Dreamworks wants to make Cowboys & Aliens and they're unwilling to shift, Downey Jr. has had to drop out, leaving director Jon Favreau to find a new Zeke Johnson.