Variety reports that the upcoming adaptation of the Nancy Springer YA books titled The Enola Holmes Mysteries has recruited Henry Cavill (Mission Impossible: Fallout) to play the precocious young detective’s better known older brother, Sherlock.
Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame is starring in the film which will depict the mysteries which Enola investigates; these are originally described in a series of six novels starting with 2006’s The Case of the Missing Marquess.
Enola Holmes will also star Helena Bonham Carter who is on board to play the siblings’ mother.
Killing Eve director Harry Bradbeer will helm the film which is penned by Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials), while Legendary Entertainment and Brown’s PCMA Productions will produce the film.
I don’t know if any other character has been as widely reimagined as Sherlock Holmes over the many years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought the infallable detective into the public consciousness; I like to think that part of what made the most famous resident of Baker Street an eternal success is the formula of adapting an everyman into his stories to translate the workings of his mind. In Watson, the audience can follow along with equal wonder as Sherlock navigates impossible puzzles and mysteries and even though I’ve not read the Enola Holmes books I suspect that she may play a similar, albeit more empowered role.
Casting Cavill in the role of the elder sibling is also more of a throwback; the excellent and well received more recent iterations of the character (BBC’s Sherlock, Guy Ritchie’s love notes to the filthy streets of Victorian London) have focused on the character being a fundamentally flawed and deeply eccentric type who’s brilliance outshines his shortcomings. This makes for good cinema in the 21st century and an entertaining outlet for talented actors and scriptwriters but would probably get in the way of the true star of Enola Holmes; better to have him as more responsible, less of a wretch and a significantly better role model for the aspiring young detective.
Enola Holmes is expected to hit theatres sometime in 2020.
What do you guys think? Is there room in the dockyard for another Sherlock Holmes, who happens to be the elder brother of an aspiring teen detective?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!