"I Can Tell a Moriarty When I See One" [VALL]

You may recall the death of author John Gardner, BSI ("Moriarty") in August of 2007. He was well known for where he picked up with the James Bond novels, as commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate.

Of course, one of the reasons he was inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars was his Sherlockian work in the 1970s, in which he looked at life as a Victorian criminal through the eyes of Professor James Moriarty. His first entry in this series was The Return Of Moriarty; the second was The Revenge Of Moriarty, which picked up where the Return left off. There were rumors of a manuscript for a third installment in the series, but the book never made it to bookstore shelves before Gardner's demise.

Well, the wait is over - the final installment in the trilogy is titled Moriarty and will be available in November 2008. You can pre-order it from Amazon.com by clicking here. You can also pre-order it from Amazon.co.uk by clicking here. The description of the book, courtesy of Amazon:

It is the turn of the century and, having survived the struggle with Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, Professor James Moriarty is alive and well and about to realize his plans to establish crime syndicates in the major cities of the United States. But suddenly he is called back to London, where his vast criminal society has been overrun by a rival concern led by the shadowy Sir Jordan Jack Idell—or Idle Jack—a supposed gentleman hoodlum acting on behalf of criminal elements in France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.

As Moriarty fights back—against both the unruly crime families and the forces of law and order—readers are thrown in among the lurkers, punishers, dippers, cracksmen, and the professor�s elite guard.

Moriarty lives again and revolts against those who attempt to oust him from his rightful place as king of “Napoleon of Crime.”

While you won't be able to get a signed copy, you might want to act early on this, as it's likely to capture a lot of attention and fly off the shelves early. This is yet another piece in what I like to think is a Sherlockian Renaissance that's about to begin.

"The Colossal Schemes of Baron" [REIG]

While it's encouraging to know that Sherlock Holmes is being considered for cinematic outings from time to time - the last big screen flourishes having occurred with Young Sherlock Holmes and Without a Clue - the latest round of Hollywood rumors leaves a little to be desired.

Sherlock Holmes Reinvented
The first announcement occurred a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that none other than Warner Bros. were interested in backing a film by Madonna's soon-to-be-ex Guy Ritchie. In this gritty, action-based dramatization, we'll see a "reinvention" of the character as Ritchie rewrites an upcoming comic book by Lionel Wigram. According to the article, the focus will be on adventure, with Holmes's skills as a boxer and swordsman being highlighted. Rumor has it that Robert Downey, Jr. will take the lead.

If you ask me, the stories already have a good deal of adventure to them, and Holmes is already imbued with superhero-like powers that he doesn't need to be rewritten or sexed-up for the big screen. When will screenwriters and directors realize that they've got the makings of the perfect hero the way the character was written?

"Frankly Hilarious"?
The latest ugly rumor is that none other than Sacha Baron Cohen - yes, that's right, Borat - will team up with Will Ferrell to play Holmes and Watson in a comedy. How they'll manage to work the potty humor for which they're known into a treatment about the detective and his colleague is a mystery to me. One of the producers is Judd Apatow, who's been responsible for recent comedies such as Walk Hard, Knocked Up, Talledega Nights, and the 40 Year-Old Virgin (all titles meant to inspire confidence in his comedic judgment, I suppose).

But according to the co-president of Columbia Pictures, "Sacha and Will are two of the funniest and most talented guys on the planet, and having them take on these two iconic characters is frankly hilarious."

At least they're sticking to the right genre.

Has It Come to This?
I'm not trying to be a spoilsport here - publicity for the great detective is important as we try to keep his name in the spotlight - but think of the children! In these days when books are getting less attention and kids get more information through video games, the Web, multimedia and text messaging, we need to be circumspect with the material we're presenting to them.

What will coming generations think if they're introduced to Holmes and Watson via recent questionable productions like Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stockingand Sherlock Holmes and Baker Street Irregulars, or the above-mentioned projects? We can only hope that creative devotees will find a way to integrate more Canonically faithful movies.

Think of what the world would have been like if the Granada Television series with Jeremy Brett hadn't come along in the early 1980s. We would have been relegated to memories of John Cleese in The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It and Dudley Moore & Peter Cook in The Hound Of The Baskervilles. I shudder at the thought.

What do you think? Chime in with a comment below.

P.S. In case you're wondering, this is no joke, unlike my successful hoodwinking of many outlets with my April Fool's Day prank.