Crowe set to play Dr. Watson

London (ANI): Hollywood actor Russell Crowe is set to play Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's upcoming Sherlock Holmes flick. The Gladiator actor was due to play Sheriff of Nottingham in a retelling of the Robin Hood story, which has been put on hold for the time being.

Both Crowe and Guy Ritchie are keen to work together in the detective flick, which is based on a forthcoming comic book series featuring souped-up Sherlock. "Russell wants the part, Guy wants Russell, all they've got left to do is dot the i's. and cross the t's," British tabloid The Sun quoted an insider as saying.

The upcoming flick will also see Hollywood actor Robert Downey Junior playing the lead role of Sherlock Holmes. "I've got to spend some time with Guy and I love his take on it, we're both martial arts enthusiasts and in the original stories of Sherlock Holmes, he's kind of a bad-ass and a bare-knuckle boxer and studies the rare fictional martial art of baritsu," Robert d. Junior said.

"It's a period piece where you don't modernise it, you just realise how modern it was," he added.