A few days before the release of Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie said that “it’s not a matter of fact” that he will be directing the movie adaptation of Lobo, following reports in September that he had signed on to direct. Now we know why. According to Hero Complex, who spoke to producer Joel Silver, the success of Sherlock Holmes ($389 million worldwide) has made Warner Bros. interested in making a sequel, and they may want it fast-tracked.
“I don’t think he’s going to do it now,” Silver said of Ritchie directing “Lobo.” “The studio wants us and Guy to focus on making another ‘Sherlock Holmes.’ So I think we’re going to be doing that. But we’re seeing what happens with this. Everybody is analyzing everything. It’s all kind of happening right now as we talk. ‘Sherlock’ is sitting at just about $400 million in worldwide gross and showing itself to be pretty effective and pretty strong. So we’re trying to see if we can do something quickly with another ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movie. We have some ideas and some good story points.”
As for Lobo, Silver said they will probably be looking for a different director to come onboard:
Silver said “Lobo” remains a viable project. In the 1980s, the character was a wickedly funny parody of the antiheroes Wolverine and Punisher, characters that now have a combined seven film appearances to their credit.
“It was created as a rebuttal to the Marvel characters and his vest said ‘Bite me fanboy,’ ” Silver pointed out. “It was very much a response to Wolverine and Punisher and the other characters and I think now that makes it fresh [for moviegoers]. We’re working on it now and it will be nice to put it together and make it happen.”
Warner Bros. always planned to make a franchise out of Sherlock Holmes, so it’s not too surprising to hear a sequel is in the works. The film wasn’t anything special, but it was enjoyable and i’d be interested to see where they take it. I’m also interested to see who they cast as Professor Moriarty, who we saw glimpses of in the first film. Rumors swirled a few months ago that Brad Pitt was in talks for the role, however nothing has come of that. Yet.
