Come on Irene (Adler)

As Arthur Conan Doyle aficionados across the globe await the return of Guy Ritchie’s enthrallingly modern vision of the Great Detective in Sherlock Holmes 2, it would seem that Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler in the first film) is second-guessing reprising her role in the sequel. More confounding still is the fact that production has already begun on the sequel and McAdams remains in limbo.

Alfred Hitchcock — the notorious neurotic of pre-production, who unfortunately never helmed a Sherlockian adventure — is likely rolling over in his grave, as Ritchie carries on with an uncertain and unstable production of Sherlock Holmes 2. Ritchie does not have the same control-freak style of direction as Hitchcock; in the production of the first film he, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law spent much of the production tweaking the script to make it more adaptable Holmes universe.

Nevertheless, the fact that one of the Ritchie’s key players is still deciding whether or not she will even appear in the film is a horse of a different color. From what sources have leaked so far, it would seem that such a divorce would not halt production or impede Ritchie’s creative process, but it does tell us something about the way films are made today.

Call it an organic process or an idiotic one, 2009’s Sherlock Holmes was slick, smart and cohesive, and more than likely the sequel will not exhibit any glimmers of a rushed production when it finally hits the big screen.