While Robert Downey, Jr. has proved his versatility as an actor it’s hard to imagine him as the most famous detective of all time, complete with an English accent.

Yet that is what we will see with the new Sherlock Holmes film scheduled to be released in 2009 and directed by Guy Ritchie.

In what is, shall we say a bad omen indicating a bad film, Robert Downey, Jr. was punched out cold by a fellow actor named Robert Maillet who towers over Downey at 7 feet tall. The image that comes to mind is Roger Moore versus Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me.

The Iron Man star proved he was capable of taking some pain when he refused to go to a hospital and insisted on continuing to work. His battered chin required stitches by an on set nurse.

The connecting punch of course was an accident. Guy Ritchie was directing the two in a fight scene and Downey simply caught a hook on the chin and went down. In real life heros can’t always take more than one punch.

Being that the literary Holmes rarely engaged in fist fights but often wielded a pistol as protection, this film may already be showing signs that it will not live up to the expectations of Sherlock Holmes fans.

A similar scenario existed with the bizarre yet entertaining interpretation of Young Sherlock Holmes starring an actor who never achieved such visibility again. At the very least maybe Guy Ritchie will throw in some hallucinatory scenes of cream puffs attacking Dr. Watson.

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