Much has been made of CBS’s decision to produce a modern version of the Sherlock Holmes story (Elementary, starring Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson wait what?), mostly because there already is a show about Sherlock Holmes on the BBC and it is titled Sherlock and it is excellent and it doesn’t have anyone doing a sh-tload of CBS things like putting on and/or taking off sunglasses while delivering corny one-liners. Fans of the original were justifiably upset about it, and it turns out they are not alone, as this interview with Sherlock star and delightful-name-haver Benedict Cumberbatch makes very clear:
What do you make of the new US modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation, Elementary?
Jonny [Lee Miller] asked me if I was all right with him doing it. I said, “What are the similarities?” And he went, “Well it’s modern…” I went, “Oh.” Then he said, “Lucy Liu’s going to play Joan Watson…” And I went, “Oh.” I got hold of the pilot script just to check it out. I don’t know, we’ll see. I think there’s room for us both to coexist. I don’t feel threatened by it and I wish him the best, which is as diplomatic as I can be.
At this point, presumably, Benedict Cumberbatch poured himself some brandy, loosened up his ascot, took a big ol’ swig and said “F-ck it,” because then he said this:
It’s very odd. I did say, “Well, I’d prefer you didn’t do it but you’ve got a kid to feed, a nice house in LA and a wife to keep in good clothes.” When you get used to a certain standard of living and they waft a pay cheque at you, what are you going to do? I think Jonny was like, “Mate, I’ve got the f*cking mountain to climb here [to reach the acclaim of Sherlock], you’ve got nothing to fear.” I wish him the best of luck, but I’m a bit cynical about why they’ve chosen to do it and why they cast him.
I love that paragraph so much. It’s all so backhanded and terrific. “Sure it’s okay if you want to do it, Jonny. I mean, I wouldn’t do it because I’m not a total sellout hack with a gold-digging wife who needs news shoes or whatever, but, really, go ahead. I don’t know why they’d want to do it, and why they cast you of all people, but, no, definitely, best of luck. Cheers.”
British people are the best.
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As long as people don’t associate the two shows in any way whatsoever this can all work out when CBS inevitably cancels it after a few weeks. I hold Sherlock in the highest esteem – up there with Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire. And Luther. Damn that show is awesome.
It is hard not to read his interview with a Queens English accent swirling around in your head.
Oh, Bandersnatch Cummerbund, you have no fucks to give and I love it.
Yes, John Lee Miller is a sellout hack b/c he’s getting paid for making a Sherlock Holmes T.V. show, but I’m sure Benedict Cumberbatch didn’t get paid for his show at all. He absolutely did it for the art, of course. That’s the REAL reason people make T.V., and anyone who does it for money doesn’t understand what it is to be genuinely artistic.
Sherlock is a very good show. I honestly can’t see CBS coming anywhere close to it. Which probably means the CBS version will be on for 20 years and be a highly successful piece of crap.
That’s what I say about every promo I see for a new show on CBS. “Oh, Made In Jersey. That’ll be horrible and get ten million viewers a week for a decade.”
More like Cumber-beyatch AMIRITE
I have to assume the producer of the Johnny Lee Miller version of the show is Bryce Cummings.
Jonny Lee Miller: 20 years in Hollywood, lots and lots of sex with Angelina Jolie. Young, hot, crazy Angelina Jolie.
Benedict Cumberbatch: Was a nobody two years ago.
… I’m pretty sure I had a point when I started writing this, but now I’m distracted by the fact that Jonny Lee Miller had lots of crazy deviant sex with Angelina Jolie.
Wait, did he give the interview as his interpretation of Sherlock? Because it sounds very much like he did.
This guy comes across as pretty much an asshole in every interview I’ve ever read, and it’s hard to get past that when trying to watch him grace the screen with his AHCT-ING!!! . I’m sorry the commoners don’t have gold-plated farts like thou doest, L’il Lord Fauntelroy, but, get over yourself.
His name reminds me of a great Eddie Izzard joke. Jerry Dorsey anyone?
How I’d like the series to begin:
Lucy Lu: HAI SHERLOCK I FOUND THIS POWDERED SUGAR AT THE CRIME SCENE ISN’T THAT GREAT??
Holmes: That’s anthrax.
Lucy Lu: LOL SHOULDN’T OF PUT IT ON MY DOUGHNUT THEN! (Falls down dead, series over.)
Did they ask him how it feels to get bumped from BBC America by Chris Hardwick?
Jonny – “It’s (takes of sunglasses) Elementary, my dead Watson.
Watson – No! Youse a bringa backa laundry now!
Is Benedict gonna have to choke a Cumberbatch
Then Jeremy Brett came back from the dead and gave them both this look until their heads exploded. [media.tumblr.com]
“Benedict Cumberbatch” sounds like a goblin name from World of Warcraft.
Also, there’s no way to be “justifiably upset” about this show. The BBC fans have been behaving as though Elementary is taking Sherlock’s timeslot and stealing all of its talent. They’re mad for absolutely no reason. It’s a pathetic overrreaction (which I suppose is how you could define 60% of the internet’s responses to everything).
Indeed, I want Elementary to end up being amazing purely out of spite at this point.
Uh, Mike Keesey made my point about Jeremy Brett before I did and used a great pic doing it. With the “Sherlock Holmes” stories now in public domain, I’d like to see sorts of Shelocks coming up. Every country and any nationality should do their own Sherlock. And, far as I’m concerned, none of them need Cumberbatch’s blessing.
A bit of context: Cumberbatch and Miller did a critically-acclaimed stage production of Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle, in which they switched up the roles of Frankenstein and monster with each performance. That’s why the article is assuming that they’re friends.
That actually sounds really cool.
How can Benedict Cumberbatch be such a bitchy little queen and such an unspeakable badass all at the same time? That posh motherfucker’s all right.
Actually, Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch have both *said* that they are friends. And, they have both expressed that they support each other in this.
If it doesn’t seem suspect to ANYONE that CBS deliberately chose to cast the ONE person whose immediate previous role was an award winning turn opposite the star of BBC’s Sherlock — when happened to be casting the role of “Sherlock Holmes” then, well, you have a screw loose. Obviously they wanted the media attention of casting the person who was alternating roles with him… someone who could “be” him every other night, so to speak…
The touchy part of this was that, while the US often makes their own version of British shows, CBS had asked for permission to copy BBC’s Sherlock and been told “NO.” So, they can use the core canon works of ACD’s Sherlock Holmes, which is out of Copyright, but they can NOT use the works of Steven Moffat or Mark Gatis.
And if you’ve ever listened to an interview that Mr. Cumberbatch gives, he’s very humble, intelligent and respectful of other artists. He’s being ASKED for his opinion. He’s IN the show in question. Interviewers ask him these things, so he answers. Then they take quotes that sound the most damning and take them out of context and put them out all over the place. It’s ridiculous.
I’ll watch “Elementary” to see whether it sucks, but I don’t hold out much hope. They already have me a bit offended with the idea of a Dr. Watson who is “disgraced”. I have always found the idea of Dr. Watson as a character to be quite unassailable as *the* loyal, trustworthy, intelligent, dependable person… not someone who would be “in disgrace”… but I will, as I said give it a shot.
And even if it does turn out ok CBS doesn’t have a history of supporting their shows anyway. If you don’t think they are being sneaky and manipulating this to get as much mileage as possible then you are very naive.
And if they *do* steal any of Mr. Moffat or Mr. Gatis’s original ideas, I hope they sue the pants off of CBS.
No one will ever read this – but CBS does support it’s shows (look how long it holds on to the CSI’s and POI and whatnot). NBC is the one to pull the trigger too early on shows.