Sherlock Holmes early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times. Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen U.S. films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures) from 1939 to 1946, and in "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on the Mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946 (before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway). While the Fox films were period pieces,
Holmes & Watson Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson as they use their brilliant minds to stop rival Professor James Moriarty from assassinating the Queen Victoria. In July 2008, it was reported that Sacha Baron Cohen would play Holmes and Will Ferrell would play Dr. Watson, in a comedic take on Sherlock Holmes produced by Judd Apatow with a script written by Etan Cohen for Columbia Pictures. On August 17, 2016, it was reported that Ferrell and John C. Reilly would star in the film "Holmes and Watson" written and directed by Etan Cohen, with Ferrell playing Holmes and Reilly playing Watson. On