Between the excellent Benedict CumberbatchMartin Freeman BBC series, the unseen-by-yours-truly Jonny Lee Miller show, and that interminable pair of Robert Downey Jr. movies, we have our fill of Sherlock Holmes — now, more than ever. It can get tiring, sure — who, truly, wants a third version of The Final Problem in as many years? — but that doesn’t mean yet another “new” incarnation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s most famous character must be some burden on the pop culture landscape. You can do it right, so long as you also make it count.

Early though it may be, I like the sound of this next stab: according to THR, Ian McKellen and Bill Condon will make their long-awaited Gods and Monsters reunion with A Slight Trick of the Mind, in which the Englishman is to play an older Sherlock Holmes, in his advanced stage emotionally bruised by a case that has gone unsolved for fifty years. All that exists, now, are bits and pieces, the distinctions coming down to “a confrontation with an angry husband, [and] a secret bond with his beautiful but unstable wife” — not much to go off of, especially when Holmes is rendered immobile without the use of his cane and mentally weakened minus the presence of Dr. Watson. Something McKellen could knock out of the park, I’d dare say so early on.

Mitch Cullin‘s 2005 novel serves as the narrative backbone, and Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess) will be adapting; Icon’s AI Film are to finance, while Archer Gray Productions will assist in meeting the planned April 2014 kick-off.

Might McKellen and Condon make Slight Trick a Holmes tale worthy of the Doyle name?

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