Will Russell Brand Crop Up In 'Sherlock Holmes 2?'

One of the more pleasant surprises of last year was when Guy Ritchie's take on "Sherlock Holmes," a film we were actively dreading, turned out to be very good indeed: respectful of the character and history, but with enough thrills and spills to let it connect with a contemporary audience, and with the central pairing creating enough chemistry to sustain a franchise. Warner Bros. have been moving full-steam ahead on the sequel all year, with director Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law all set to return for a plot that'll see the detective heroes battle their nemesis Moriarty across Europe.

The cast has been filled out in recent weeks, with "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace coming on board as a 'French gypsy,' and possible love interest for Holmes, and British comedian/national treasure Stephen Fry confirming this past weekend that he'll play Holmes' brother Mycroft, who works for the British secret service. It appears that Rachel McAdams won't be back in a major capacity this time around — no great loss, as, while we're big fans of the actress, she was miscast in the original, and probably the film's weakest link. Now there's news that another English funnyman might be joining the cast.

In the midst of a mind-bogglingly thrilling report on Russell Brand's bachelor party, The Daily Mail has revealed that, the morning after, the stand-up-turned-actor was up early for a trip to Guy Ritchie's house "to discuss whether he would have a role in Ritchie's upcoming film 'Sherlock Holmes 2.'" Furthermore, the paper pictures Brand dancing his way out of the house afterwards, suggesting the meeting may have gone well, and we may see the "Get Him To The Greek" star in the film.

British tabloids are notoriously unreliable on things like this, but the circumstantial evidence here seems strong, and, while their politics and journalism are, in most aspects, totally reprehensible, The Daily Mail usually have a little more nous in the showbiz world than most, so we're inclined to give the report the benefit of the doubt.

We imagine that some kind of comic relief sidekick role is in the works for Brand. While it remains to be seen if the flamboyant star can maintain any kind of career longevity, we were actually hugely impressed by his performance in "Get Him To The Greek," the script and cast for his "Arthur" remake next year are strong enough that it should be a big hit, and he's broadening his horizons by appearing in Julie Taymor's "The Tempest." While that film was coolly met by Venice critics, on the whole, they were fairly polite about Brand.

He certainly won't be playing Professor Moriarty, at least — no casting's yet been announced on that one. Names linked to the part included Gary Oldman, Sean Penn and Javier Bardem, but the one that keeps recurring is Daniel Day-Lewis. While we were originally very skeptical that the project would hold any interest for the notoriously picky actor, we've received decent intel that Day-Lewis may indeed take the role — although it's worth noting that, as of last week, sources inside the production were claiming ignorance of any firm casting for the character. With filming due to start in a few weeks, we'll know soon enough.