In the last month, Sherlock, the BBC's hugely successful reinvention of Arthur Conan Doyles stories, hit our screens for a third run proving that even though Holmes was created nearly 130 years ago, the character can still be used in thrilling new ways. Nowadays alone, Sherlock is accompanied by Sherlock Holmes action films, courtesy of Guy Ritchie, and, in CBS' Elementary, a Sherlock Holmes police procedural set in contemporary New York. Plus, there's an upcoming film starring Sir Ian McKellen as an elderly version of the Great Detective. However, this is just the tip of the deerstalker hat. There have been many imaginative, off-the-wall and just downright weird versions of Sherlock Holmes and his friends and foes over the years and across film and television. Now, let's peer through the pea-souper fog and have a look at eight other alternative Sherlock Holmes adaptations...
8. Young Sherlock Holmes
Barry Levinson's 1985 mystery/adventure film is one of the rare movie adaptations of the Holmes Canon that portrays the meeting of Sherlock Holmes and his loyal friend, Dr Watson. Oh, how faithful to the originals, you think? Actually, no, as it entirely rewrites their meeting. The film follows the two as boys (Nicholas Rowe as Holmes and Alan Cox as Watson) as they meet at boarding school - and immediately fall into a mystery involving the death of a professor by a hallucinogenic dart and the evil machinations of an Egyptian cult! Well, you might as well start as you mean to go on. Interestingly, the film aims to explain the adult Holmes' unusual ways. Here, Holmes is taught by his fencing tutor to be less emotional and impulsive, he is in a doomed romance with a young girl, Elizabeth (Sophie Ward), and is even given his famous deerstalker as a gift. With its Indiana Jones-undertones and Harry Potter-feel (it's written by the future director of the first two films in the series, Chris Columbus) , it's fondly remembered by many. So much so, in fact, that there are talks of a remake. Even if this falls through, as a new spin on the character, with the aim of shedding some light on him, this remains one of the most memorable alternative Sherlock Holmes films.
