Will Ferrell Set to Star in Sherlock Holmes Comedy

Will Ferrell is set to team up with John C. Reilly again for a new Sherlock Holmes-inspired comedy.

The pair worked together before on Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers and are reuniting for Holmes & Watson, which is being written by Etan Cohen based on the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Ferrell will play detective Holmes, while Reilly will play his faithful right-hand man Watson in the Sony Pictures project.

Initially, Ferrell was due to star in the movie with Sacha Baron Cohen – who also appeared in Talladega Nights – but development was stalled. However, Sony bosses were still keen to start production on the picture and now Reilly, 51, has agreed to appear shooting is due to start in November.

Holmes & Watson will be produced by Mosaic and Gary Sanchez. Cohen previously worked with Ferrell, 49, on Get Hard – which was his directorial debut – and his comedy credits include Idiocracy and Tropic Thunder.

Ferrell has also been cast as former American President Ronald Reagan in Reagan.

The script’s logline reads “when Ronald Reagan falls into dementia at the start of his second term, an ambitious intern is tasked with convincing the Commander-In-Chief that he is an actor playing the President in a movie”.