Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 BritishAmerican action mystery film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg was developed from a story by Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson respectively. In the film, Holmes and his companion Watson, with aid from former adversary Irene Adler, investigate a series of murders connected to occult rituals. Mark Strong plays the villain Lord Blackwood, who has somehow returned after his execution with a plot to take over the British Empire using an arsenal of dark arts and new technologies.
The film went on general release in the United States on 25 December 2009, and on 26 December 2009 in the UK, Ireland, and the Pacific, and was met with a moderately positive critical reaction. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Original Score and Best Art Direction, which it lost to Up and Avatar, respectively.