Steve Hargrave, showbiz correspondent
The man with the hat is back - but this time he's definitely not wearing a deerstalker.
The new Sherlock Holmes movie had its world premiere just miles from Baker Street in London's Leicester Square.
Stars Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law joined director Guy Ritchie at the launch of the film, which they said returns to the gritty origins of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books.
"It was a really big deal," said Downey Jr, whose wife Susan produced the new adaptation.
"I didn't take it lightly and it's really trippy to be here a year later having worked on it all this while."
Holmes of course is fiction's most-portrayed character, with more than 70 actors taking on the role at various times.
So did the star pay any attention to previous efforts?
"I didn't not look at it," he smiled, before pointing at his wife. "I just started doing my own work, I guess she got me some stuff."
"You looked at some stuff," added Susan, "but it was more for the storytelling than it was for the performance stuff, because ours was definitely going back to the story that Conan Doyle wrote."
Law plays Watson, and agreed with the theory that rather than this being a 21st century take on the world of Holmes, it's actually grounded in the past.
Law hogs the limelight in front of the cast and crew at the premiere
See a gallery of images from the film on Sky Movies
"It was actually true to the source material," he said.
"I didn't know the book, but a lot of the ideas that sound like we're reinventing are actually rediscovering.
"Watson was certainly younger and certainly less portly and more involved in the adventures, and it was exciting for me to hopefully educate audiences into a newer way of looking at it."
The film marks a change of pace for Ritchie, who found himself fronting a big studio-based potential franchise, rather than one of his own scripts.
He saw the project as a chance to make his own mark.
"I was familiar with all the stories as a boy," he told Sky News.
"So when they came to me I was very enthusiastic because I've never seen another film of Holmes and I've never watched the TV series, so I had my idea of how he should be represented."
So will there be a sequel? The story is certainly left open-ended, and there are already rumours that Brad Pitt may come on board as Holmes' adversary Moriaty.
Downey Jr for one was keeping an open mind.
"The nice thing is nowadays they (can) kind of tell how movies are about to be received," he laughed.
"It seems we may be able to do this again, but I don't want to be presumptuous."
Source:news.sky.com/
