Kent News - Explosion is latest setback at Sherlock Holmes set

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Friday, September 3 2010, 6:01

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Explosion is latest setback at Sherlock Holmes set

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Chatham Historic Dockyard

Director Guy Ritchie will be hoping his last day of filming in Medway is accident-free – after two incidents blighted the shooting of Sherlock Holmes.

The ‘Lock, Stock...’ star, who recently divorced pop diva Madonna, has seen late-night filming of the Hollywood blockbuster completely shut down at Chatham Historic Dockyard twice in the past two weeks, Yourmedway reports.

Luckily for Ritchie, there is just 24 hours filming to be completed at the former naval base later this month, before the entire crew heads off for New York in the New Year.

The shoot was first brought to a halt when 7ft tall 25-stone wrestler-turned-actor Robert Maillet accidentally knocked out Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr – who plays the famous detective in the big budget film – with a crushing right hook.

A national newspaper said the 43-year-old lead was “out cold” for six seconds and “drooling blood” before medics could bring him round.

A nurse on set gave Downey Jr six stitches in his lower lip to stem the blood loss.

The second incident took place on Friday evening when the entire cast – including Jude Law, 35, who plays Holmes’ sidekick Dr Watson – had to flee the set when a petrol tanker exploded.

The fully loaded vehicle burst into flames during a delivery to the set, forcing it to close for two hours.

A source on set said: “The crew have started joking about the curse of Sherlock Holmes.”

Scenes for the film are being shot at night in Covered Slip 7, which has been transformed into a Victorian shipyard.

The thriller sees Downey Jr and Law take on their mysterious new adversary Lord Blackwood, played by Mark Strong, who also starred in Guy Ritchie’s previous offering RocknRolla.

Mean Girls and Wedding Crashers actress Rachel McAdams stars as Irene Adler, the only woman to have ever bested Holmes and who has maintained a tempestuous relationship with the sleuth.

Eden Lake starlet Kelly Reilly plays Watson’s love interest, Mary Morstan.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has been a regular fixture on television and film screens, with Peter Cushing most notably taking on the title role in the 1959 film version of The Hound of The Baskervilles.

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is set for release in November 2009.

POSTED: 03/12/2008 08:00:00

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