I’ve had a very lazy Christmas break, I was meant to put this up on Boxing in time for the UK release date, but I was too busy chillaxing and lazing about for once! If you missed part 1 of the interview you can check it out here. It’s good to hear the film is doing so well in the states, it made $65 million over the weekend (big chee$e) and is being recieved very well critically.

What was your devotion to martial arts like, according to the production notes you’ve been doing it for 6 years and also how did you prepare for the bare knuckle boxing scene?

Robert Downey Jnr: There was a choreographed version of it, I went in and got all pissed about it, Guy came in and we worked on it, so I think your seeing probably version 6.0 by the time we shot it, Guy is a jiu jitsu fella we managed to get along some how!

It was so fun though, by the time we had finished shooting that scene I felt like we really had a handle on the movie and not because I took my top off and showed my rippling abs and self important garbage but because this was Guys idea and it was really a bold thing and it could have gone really poorly, in which case the rest of the movie is trying to recover from the bad Guy Ritchie scene we went out and shot but it was literally perfect, it set the tone, it was really his take. We had to trust each other and get each others approval. I’m crazy about fighting, I love it (laughs)

Why do you love filming in Britain and Jude what’s it like filming in your hometown?

Robert Downey Jnr: I was here 20 years ago and the food SUCKED, and I wasn’t particularly happy when I was here, I was doing a film called Air America, I renamed it Air Generica and we were at Pinewood Studios, then I came back and did Chaplin but I think there is something about the work ethic here, the people, the culture, as Americans we sometimes have an abrupt attitude, there’s a much more civilized way to operate over here. For me the film was a huge experience, it was the proper way to do things and I’ve taken everything forth.

Jude Law: The production designer done an amazing job, we’d turn up everyday amazed, they had been preparing for days, there was so much detail, it was exquisite, it’s always fun to be out and about and film, rather than in a studio, I like getting my boots dirty, it was fun, it’s always fun working in the UK.

Guy are we gonna lose you to Hollywood or are you gonna still make the smaller Independent films?

Guy Ritchie: I don’t know, I really just make the films I want to make, the interesting thing about this experience was that it wasn’t the cliché experience between film-maker and studio, I argued for the studio, I wanted to make an assessable, broad film and they wanted the Guy Ritchie’isms so I was arguing for the studio and they were arguing for me, it was like two people going to the bar and both insisting the other should pay, so all the arguments between the studio and myself were coming from a positive place. I think studios have changed as well with there approach to film-makers, I had a tremendous experience from beginning to end, there was no us and them.

Why Sherlock Holmes out of all the iconic characters?

Guy Ritchie: Partly because I was invested in him as a child, I had a really strong visual sense about who I thought Sherlock Holmes should be, not only that but I had not seen any other productions, unlike most people I had no visual reference other than what I had knocked up in my mind. Warners came up to me with the idea and as soon as they mentioned it, I was fascinated.

What were the re-shoots about, there was a lot of talk about that earlier this year?

Guy Ritchie: In every film I’ve ever done we always leave a contingency for a week because you never know what’s gonna surface during the editing process, so we always leave a week and we left a week. The films the film we all intended to make. On the DVD there are no deleted scenes, there was no fat.

I’m been a big fan of Guy Ritchie (bar Revolver and Cast Away which I blame on Madonna) as I am of Robert Downey Jnr, Mark Strong and Rachel McAdams, I’m indifferent to Jude Law for no particular reason, I’m also a sucker for crime and mystery thrillers so this is right up my alley. Yet even considering all those positives when I first saw the trailer for Sherlock Holmes I wasn’t impressed at all, I thought it looked way too goofy and action packed, which for me was alien to my idea of Sherlock Holmes. Thankfully my assumptions were very wrong, the film is a brilliant, intelligent, dark and dynamic action thriller. I recently attended the UK press conference for Sherlock Holmes, check out part 1 below, part 2 will be released 26^th December just in time for the films release.

This is your first real big blockbuster why did you decide to do Sherlock Holmes?

Guy Ritchie: I chose this because I needed a job (laughs). Outside of that I wanted to go from small independent films and this seemed to be the perfect segway to go from something small. But I managed to keep the English identity but at the same we had American muscle and American pockets so its kind of the perfect segway in that it is big and broad but is essentially English but with all the American muscle.

Is there any more pressure because of the American muscle and American pockets?

Guy Ritchie: You’ll have to ask me that in a few days when the film opens (laughs), but as yet it’s really the same, it’s the same process, but they may change in a few days.

Robert and Jude how do you see these characters you’ve reinvented for this movie and how do you see them different from older interpretations?

Jude Law: When I was asked to get involved Robert was already set as Sherlock and I knew Guy was directing so I could see it was a different take on the older films of Sherlock Holmes, it fascinated me and obviously they didn’t expect me to put on two stone and put my foot in waste paper buckets, they wanted me to play Watson with more of an edge, what was intriguing, because I hadn’t read the books as a boy, was to go back to the books and see how much of this new rediscovery was also in the source material, it was a happy juggle between going back to Conan Doyle and relishing in the accuracy which in the past at times may have been overlooked and also looking to the future and adding a new energy to an audience we hope will discover or rediscover Sherlock Holmes.

Robert Downey Jnr: I think a lot of the flaming hoops we had to jump through doing Sherlock was how do you take what comes from the source material, how do you amend it so it’s accessible, and how do you not white wash it and still be respectful, if there’s anything we’ve added this time around it’s that essentially as much as it’s about this far reaching case, it’s also it’s also a fight over Mary Mortsan

For the role I don’t get scared any more, I get busy, I already knew by the time Guy was directing that it was a fresh interpretation, I’ve worked with producer Joel Silver a bunch, I’ve lived with Susan Downey (his wife) a bunch and Lionel Wigram is the person who figured out how to reprise this as a film, so I knew I was in good hands, then it was a matter of just getting down to business, I had spent some time here in the UK in the late 80’s playing Chaplin, I had a great tutelage on all things British from Lord Attenborough, so I felt I kind of past go.

The relationship between both Holmes and Watson reminds us of an old married couple at times, how did you collaborate together and when was your first introduction to Sherlock Holmes?

Jude Law: My second job on TV was on the Sherlock Holmes TV series, I was a stable boy. We started work the minute we met didn’t we?

Robert Downey Jnr: Yeah, we were trying to get Jude to do the movie and your a pretty savvy guy so it wasn’t just talk talk talk, it was more like are you interested in making the best version of this, the feedback we’ve been getting is that the film is about the two of you and the third thing that that creates, it’s one thing to promise you can get there, it’s another to roll up your sleeves and do it. Guy created such a sublime atmosphere on set, we weren’t sure it would turn out as good as it did but we really gave a big effort. It’s funny about the chemistry thing because usually people say that about you with a female cast member, but they’re talking about me and Jude like we should be doing Romantic Comedies together (laughs). This film is not a comedy, it’s a love affair of sorts, it’s about what it’s about but there are elements of Holmes and Watson in all of us. I think we just knew when to ying and yang back and forward, we were just a good team.

You’ve talked about doing a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes, but you’ve also said when you go back to the book this is what Doyle intended, would you go as far to say this is the most accurate Sherlock Holmes film to what Doyle intended?

Guy Ritchie: It’s subjective, it has too come through some sort of creative conduit, I was as a director to some degree that conduit, but from a very young age I had an idea, an image of Sherlock Holmes and the partnership, so I feel as though I’m informed by and inspired by Doyle, every other production obviously had to deal with the other interpretations before it so it’s subjective.

Robert Downey Jnr: There’s an esoteric element, sometimes you just feel like your in the right groove, you feel the history and legacy of something, you feel like your getting silent approval from another space and time. At times we were so locked into it exactly as Doyle expressed it, you can’t beat the guys words, we had some of his quotes on a call sheet everyday, but we had to twist it up a little bit, I think it’s no mystery Sherlock Holmes didn’t invent the silencer, if he invented it he done a crap job because it doesn’t work, the shooting the letters VR into a wall is right out of one of the books, which I think was a celebration of the Jubilee or something like that, it spoke to how strange the guy was. We had to honour it but still be entertaining.

Director Jon Favreau a regular user of twitter recently gave a little hint regarding Iron Man 2’s trailer release by retweeting the question below.

RT @Ann_Howard: @Jon_Favreau PLEASE tell us the trailer is coming soon – w/Sherlock Holmes, perhaps??

It does make sense that the Iron Man 2 trailer would be attached to Sherlock Holmes (in cinemas Christmas Day), since other than Avatar and Lovely Bones it is one of the most commercially viable films left to be released in 2009, also (and a bit more obviously) they both star Robert Downey Jr. I’m sure the trailer will leak online before the 25th of December. Commercially Iron Man 2 is one of the most anticipated film of 2010 (I thought the first one was a solid 7/10 nothing special) and is in theaters May 7, 2010.

In a dynamic new portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, “Sherlock Holmes” sends Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson on their latest challenge. Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary intellect, Holmes will battle as never before to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy the country.

Above is the new poster for Sherlock Homes. I’m really looking forward to this,  a lot of people are hating on the film – mainly due to the fact the trailers not very Sherlock Holmes-esque and English people hating the fact that an American is playing an iconic English character. Trailers have to be taken with a pinch of salt nowadays, the distributor wants to SELL the film the best way it can, trailers often misrepresent films – perfectly shown with The Road and Watchmen.

I’ve enjoyed Guy Ritchies previous films (apart from Swept Away and Revolver,  I class those two in the Madonna years category,  she’s accountable). Also Robert Downie Jnr is a G and I have a soft spot for Rachel McAdams so I’m sold.

Where does your fascination of the underworld come from?

Guy Ritchie: I think it’s the most efficient polarization of humans, you can get to the good and the bad, the grey, the black and white much more efficiently. I’m not obsessed with the underworld I’m just obsessed with humans and how we act I think we all are, which is why we go cinema.

We’re all guilty of judging things before we see them, a lot of people would label this as a typical Guy Ritchie film, do you think that benefits or limits it?

Guy Ritchie: If your explicit that this is a Guy Ritchie film I have no problem with that, it`s become sort of a brand and I think there`s positives with that because of peoples reactions to Snatch and Lock Stock, but I think there`s gonna be films that are gonna be under the brand but then there`s gonna be films that are not gonna be under the brand. My theory is that you bring my name out of the equation with films that aren`t in Rocknrolla`s and Snatch`s genre, so with Sherlock Holmes I`d rather just see it as Sherlock Holmes in which it`s directed by Guy Ritchie.

What other film genre`s would you like work with?

Guy Ritchie: A World War 2 movie, comedy, I like kids movies, the list could go on. I see this as the beginning of my career to be honest you know, I’m looking forward to making as many different films as I can over the next 10 years,

Sherlock Homes is in cinemas Boxing Day