New York ELEMENTARY Sherlock is Stone Cold

Since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Sherlock Holmes has broken free of its copyright laws, there have been many to snatch up the character in order to give it a make-over and present it to audiences as something shiny and new. Starting the Sherlock craze was Guy Ritchie, who has taken the character to the big screen in not one, but two action packed movies starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. The two movies did very well overall at the box office which has lead to others jumping on the Sherlock bandwagon, including the prominent BBC network and now the US CBS network.

Rising to prominence in Trainspotting, but likely more known to us geeks as Zero Cool, Jonny Lee Miller has been cast as the title character in the pilot episode of CBS’s Sherlock Holmes reboot entitled Elementary. This will be a modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes who has moved from London and will now be living in New York City, reports Deadline. Robert Doherty has penned the new Sherlock script and is executive producing the pilot along with Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly. Michael Cuesta has confirmed his participation in the pilot as the director.

As the updates keep coming from networks and =roducers, one can only wonder if networks will take too many liberties with this classic and destroy the story completely. As an avid watcher of the BBC network I’ve seen original programs such as Being Human, Red Dwarf, and Life On Mars adapted for the American audience only to fail miserably or become so detached from its original writings – which made it famous to begin with – that the shows are very short-lived on US television. Aside from several reality shows that have transferred well from the UK to the US, the only series that was remotely close to its predecessor was The Office. Granted, not all UK shows become something awful when translated for US audiences, for instance All In the Family was a huge hit, and was based on the UK’s Till Death Do Us Part. Who out there disagrees?

Recently Miller starred in Danny Boyle’s stage version of Frankenstein in London alongside Benedict Cumberbatch. If the name is familiar to you, its because Cumberbatch coincidentally plays Sherlock Holmes on BBC’s seriesSherlock which has come under much praise from British audiences. The US version of Sherlock will be set in modern day New York, coincidentally, so too was the BBC version. Miller will have a tough act to follow as Cumberbatch`s series was co-created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Nerd cred will tell you that even the show`s writers will have a tough act to follow.

Miller, who could be seen most recently in the ABC drama Eli Stone, will make a good Sherlock Holmes considering his range of acting skills. If it wasn`t Jonny Lee Miller, then who would you like to see play the quirky and insanely intelligent detective?

Before we get excited about Elementary hitting the air waves, Miller can be seen next in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and Neil Jordan’s Byzantium which are both in post-production now.