Jude Law has joined the cast of the film, and will play the trusted friend and colleague of the well-known British detective.
Ritchie will direct Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. Robert Downey Jr. will play Holmes, while Mark Strong will play the villain, Blackwood. Film production begins next month in London.
The film is based on the novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but were also inspired by the comic strip of the same name.
Jude Law has just finished working on the film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which opens in theatres next year.