While speaking to the
National Post, Jared Harris (Professor James Moriarty) stated that
"He arrived on the London set one day to witness Downey and Ritchie (both martial-arts experts) flicking sidekicks near each other’s crotches to see who would flinch first. “It’s the karate version of Russian roulette,” Ritchie explained. However Downey added that he and Ritchie are pretty tight, stating
“Jude and I are pretty close,” Downey says. “But Guy and I are practically brothers, which makes things really interesting, because there have been times when I’ve wanted to lop off his head with a machete.”
Director Guy Ritchie also spoke confirming there is a tentative plan to have Holmes travel to the U.S. for a third thriller. However, Downey [jokingly] wanted it to be made clear that the idea is his,
“I’m pretty sure that everything’s my idea,” he says with a smile.
Plans for the second installment were worked out during the press tour for the first film, so maybe that same creative process is being followed as the cast is currently on such a tour for the second film. Said Downey,
"After the first one worked out, we … started talking about things we would like to improve, other directions we could go, during the press tour for the first one,” Downey says. “And the great thing, this time, is the addition of Noomi and Jared.”
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is an upcoming 2011 British-American action mystery film directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, and Dan Lin. It is a sequel to the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The screenplay is by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law reprise their roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively, as the duo join forces to outwit and bring down their most cunning adversary, Professor Moriarty, played by Jared Harris.
Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large—Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris)—and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective. When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), points to suicide. But Sherlock Holmes deduces that the prince has been the victim of murder—a murder that is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle, designed by one Professor Moriarty. Mixing business with pleasure, Holmes tracks the clues to an underground gentlemen’s club, where he and his brother, Mycroft Holmes (Stephen Fry) are toasting Dr. Watson (Jude Law) on his last night of bachelorhood. It is there that Holmes encounters Sim (Noomi Rapace), a Gypsy fortune teller, who sees more than she is telling and whose unwitting involvement in the prince’s murder makes her the killer’s next target. Holmes barely manages to save her life and, in return, she reluctantly agrees to help him. The investigation becomes ever more dangerous as it leads Holmes, Watson and Sim across the continent, from England to France to Germany and finally to Switzerland. But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead as he spins a web of death and destruction—all part of a greater plan that, if he succeeds, will change the course of history.