Dexter Fletcher might launch himself from Rocketman to Sherlock Holmes 3

By William Hughes | July 12, 2019 | 2:52am

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Dexter Fletcher might launch himself from Rocketman to Sherlock Holmes 3

Photo: Jon Furniss

Four (or five, if you want to get real about it) films into his career as a director, Dexter Fletcher is starting to establish himself as a guy who gets shit done. Need someone to direct the last three weeks of a big-budget biopic when your original director goes AWOL ahead of a massive scandal? Fletcher’s your guy. Want a steady hand to guide your own life story to the screen while making a tidy sum along the way? Fletcher has your back. Want another fucking Sherlock Holmes movie, for some godforsaken reason? Yeah, sure: Fletcher’s got you covered.

At least, hypothetically: Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Bohemian Rhapsody pinch-hitter has just entered talks to direct Sherlock Holmes 3, the recently announced, decade-later follow-up to Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows. (Not to be confused with Book of Shadows, which is a Blair Witch movie, or The Shadow, which is Alec Baldwin.) Warner Bros. announced the threequel last year, presumably on the grounds that Robert Downey Jr. sort of became the biggest movie star on the planet since the last time they made one of these things, so why the hell shouldn’t they tap that well?

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The first two hyper-kinetic Holmes movies were, of course, directed by Guy Ritchie, who Fletcher has a strong connection to—having starred, once upon a time, alongside Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham in the future Aladdin director’s first big breakout hit, Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels. (He also provided a voice for 2015's Sherlock Gnomes, but that one feels less automatically relevant.) Sherlock Holmes 3 is currently aiming for a December 2021 release date; both Downey Jr. and Law are expected to return.