Downey Jr. and co talk thrills, spills and male bonding in the reboot of the iconic sleuth...

Things we were wondering about the latest incarnation of Sherlock Holmes... Does he have a pipe? "Yes" says Susan Downey, one of the film's producers (and wife of it's lead).

Does he play the violin? "He does," confirms Lionel Wigram, another of the film's producers.

Does he wear a deerstalker? "There are some hats...." says director Guy Ritchie non-committally.

Does he take drugs (in the original books he uses cocaine and morphine)? "This is a PG-13, right?" smiles Robert Downey Jr., before a well-timed pause. "Yeah, he's not doing coke."

We're in the appropriately baroque Freemasons Hall - which later provides one of the film's locations - for a start-of-production chat before a shoot that will encompass London, Manchester, Liverpool and Chatham Dock in Kent and the Armory, Brooklyn. The mood is good, the air bristling with a tangible mix of anticipation and quiet confidence at tackling one of the most iconic characters in popular culture. Even a suggestion that Downey was perhaps not Ritchie's first choise is batted away with a smile.

"Didn't you think I was a little old for it?" teases the actor.

A shrug from his director.

"Did I mention," says Downey, enjoying the moment, That I had a hell of a summer last year? It's made me much more viable to play a lead role that might have passed me..."

With Iron Man and Tropic Thunder taking around $773 million at the box office, and Iron Man 2 and Holmes in the works, Downey is enjoying the hottest streak of his career and clearly buzzing.

"How am I going to play Holmes? Better than he's ever been played before!" the actor grins, "like a force of nature - equal parts charm, charisma and unstoppable confidence. I think the idea of Guy and his directing style and his strenghts with a very staid classic, period idea like this is a no-lose situation. I think we're all excited about doing a fresh take, returning a little bit more to what the stories always had in them and the scale of them. The canvas is so huge. I just don't think that anyone previously ever had the budget to be able to tell the story in a really big, fun way."

Later, during filming in Chatham Docks, we get a sense of the scale. A huge ship, partly wrapped in green cloth for further CGI expansion, looms overhead, the backdrop to a chase and a fight scene involving Homes, Watson and Dredger (Robert Maillet), a seven-foot giant of a man. He is wielding a huge mallet with which he takes repeated swings at Downey. The actor ducks, weaves and does an impressive roll/blackflip over a box. Richie comes out from behind his monitor to tweak proceedings:

"Smack! Smack! Smack!" he says to Maillet, wielding the mallet to show him how he wants it done. They go again, Downey finessing his moves further.

"Second time's the charm," he grins after Ritchie gives a nod. He grabs a hefty flask, gulps deeply and wanders up behind the director's monitor. From behind some barrels Jude Law emerges, in a snazzy tweed suit and brown boots. He starts eating an apple as the two co-stars wait for the next set-up. They seem to enjoy keeping their stunt doubles on the sidelines.

"We like a fight," grins Downey.

"Yeah," confirms Law. "To be honest, you're told when you can and can't, but more often than not we can. 'Cos it's not life threatening, although...'" He cracks up laughing. "He [nods at Downey] got flattened the other day!"

"I lost consciousness against a wall," admits Downey a touch sheepishly. "I met my dead grand parents and Davy Jones was there for a minute. It was my own fault. I didn't block a punch, I was far too busy thinking about the choreography and..."

Law interrupts. "And have you seen the guy who hit him?" he grins, nodding over in de general direction of Maillet.

"If he hadn't held back, Jude would be holding my head now," winces Downey. "We've both taken a bunch of bangs and we expect more, but sometimes you're working on something, it feels particularly - I don't want to say blessed - it's like all the elements are coming together. We put in the time. We like to work and we like to prepare so it's a seven-day-a-week-job. We're always getting together on days off and talking with Mrs. Downey and Lionel and Guy about how we can make things better. If you have a great team of people around, you can safely create something fresh on the day. And on a big, long job like this, it's what gives you the energy you need to stay excited through to the end, you know?"

Law nods vigorously. The camaraderie between the two is evident. They overlap each other's sentences, echo several points, interject, tease and regularly laugh at each other. All of which gives credence to the suggestion that there will be a touch of Butch and Sundances to the finished film.

"That was our goal," admits Susan Downey. "And I think we're getting there."

"Honestly," confirms Wigram, "we couldn't be happier with that. They've got a great chemistry together, they look great together, it really, really works well.

"I think you'll believe that the characters have known each other for a long time," says Downey. "And you'll understand how they are completely different and yet completely compatible at the same time."

The crew regroup for the next set-up, a shot of a gun-wielding Watson chasing through the ship's moorings to reach Holmes. Downey positions himself behind Ritchie at the monitor.

"You know," he offers. "We have a budget to do all kinds of big fun stuff and green screens and all that, but I've seen a bunch of movies where you think, here comes the big action sequence and there's the explosion and... That's when I go off to get more popcorn 'cos I know the guys at the CGI studio or the stunt guys have taken over and I'm not following the story any more. But, here, we just keep talking about how to keep these characters alive during these big sequences. We're really working our tuchuses off to get the script, the action, the overall look of the film to super, super high quality. To make a really solid piece of entertainment because I think audiences are too savvy and they'll get pissed off if we talk up this great movie and then we don't really deliver and don't really dig and see how far we could have gone and how smart we could have made it."

On Watson... Robert and Jude explain why the good doctor is more than just a sidekick.

Robert Downey Jr. - The purists will say that the way Watson has been depicted previously is not accurate. He's kind of a bumbling guy in previous films. And I think for the time, when those series were out, it was an easier way and there were more references for that. There was the guy who had his act together and there was the bumbling guy; there was Abbott and there was Costello. But Watson is a doctor and army surgeon, in fact, he's a veteran. He is something of a bad-ass himself but in a more reserved way. Our Watson isn't like what you saw in previous incarnations, sticking his foot in wastepaper baskets and looking befuddled.

Jude Law - The number of people who take that as the reading of Watson! And when you read the book you realise this guy's right next to him, and he's straight out of the army and he's born in India and Afghanistan and the idea that he's ever [puts on shaky old voice] "I can't keep up with you." It's a joke really. These guys are on the front line together.

Robert Downey Jr. - Talking of the books, there's this very tender moment where Holmes pays Watson a great compliment and says "You know Watson, you're so grand keeping silence." Makes him most valuable as a companion. Except in this context where Watson is particularly pissed off with Holmes at that very moment, he cuts him off mid-sentence by punching him right in the mouth. We're talking about the two-hander or a buddy adventure. We're going into a world where these two guys are together.