Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that director Guy Ritchie will begin shooting the follow-up to Sherlock Holmes this summer. The rumors of the film date started flying last week when Robert Downey, Jr. dropped out of buddy’s Jon Favreau’s movie Cowboys & Aliens. Seems like a pretty smart  move on Downey’s part; with the success of Sherlock Holmes, he’s now the star in two of the biggest franchises going. It’s been rumored that Warner Bros. immediately green-lit the sequel after the movie hit the $300 million mark… I’m sure Bob told Jon, “Hey, sorry man. I got this thing…” and then cashed that fat movie check. If you haven’t seen Sherlock Holmes yet, it literally blew me away. The perfect mix of action, mystery, mind-f***, sexual tension and good acting made this one of the better movies of the year. This was easily better than most of the summer “blockbusters” from this year and should definitely rate at least a nomination for Downey. Guy Ritchie easily made the transition from “underground” director to big budget director and rightly deserves to. With the cult success of movies like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and RocknRolla – it was only a matter of time before somebody with a brain in Hollywood took notice of his talents as both a director and writer. What really has me excited for the sequel though is the introduction of Professor Moriarty as the main Holmes villain. We were given scenes with Moriarty in shadow or on the phone, but never a very clear outline or enough voice to place the actor. Since before the movie opened, it was rumored that Brad Pitt, a good friend of Ritchie, had gone into to do some last minute reshoots. Nothing confirmed from either camp other than he was on set, but how cool would it be to see Pitt as Moriarty? Has he ever done a true villain in his career? The closest I can come is The Devil’s Own and even then we were made to be sympathetic to his character. Moriarty would give him the chance to really stretch his acting chops. For those unfamiliar with the Sherlock Holmes books, Moriarty is to Holmes as Dr. Doom is to Mr. Fantastic or Lex Luthor is to Superman or Joker is to Batman. He was Holmes’ foil. 2011 is shaping up to be a huge movie season. Have you seen the movie yet? What did you think?