Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series) "Rathbone "was" Sherlock Holmes". The choice of Nigel Bruce as Watson was more contentious, with Davies pointing out that "Bruce's characterisation bore little relation" to the written Watson, even though the portrayal eventually produced "an endearingly avuncular figure". The historian David Parkinson agrees, and wrote that Bruce's "avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone's briskly omniscient sleuth". Barnes notes that, despite the criticisms against him, Bruce rehabilitated Watson, who had been a marginal figure in the cinematic Holmes canon to that point: "after Bruce, it would be a near-unthinkable heresy to show Holmes without him". With the combination of
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