After faring so well together in Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are re-teaming in another Sony Pictures comedy. They’ll star in Holmes & Watson, with Etan Cohen directing a script that is inspired by the Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tale, but with a PG-13 comic bent similar to their past collaborations. Ferrell and Reilly have been looking for several years to find another opportunity to work together, and now they’ve got it. Ferrell will play Holmes and Reilly will play his faithful wing man, Watson.

The studio originally bought the script with Ferrell attached to do the movie with Sacha Baron Cohen, who costarred with Ferrell and Reilly in Talladega Nights. That stalled. The project came back together very quickly over the past few weeks under production president Sanford Panitch and chief Tom Rothman; when scheduling slots opened for all parties, Sony seized the moment. They are planning to go into production right after Thanksgiving. The film will be produced by Mosaic and Gary Sanchez. Cohen, whose comic scripts include Idiocracy and Tropic Thunder, made his directorial debut on Get Hard, the comedy that starred Ferrell and Kevin Hart.

Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Laurie Join Will Ferrell in Sony's 'Holmes and Watson' (Exclusive)
9:33 AM PST 1/6/2017 by Borys Kit

The Oscar-nominated Fiennes and the Emmy-winning Laurie have joined Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in Holmes and Watson, Sony’s comedic take on literature’s great detective, Sherlock Holmes.

In the third team-up for Ferrell and Reilly (Talladega Nights and Step Brothers were the previous partnerships), Ferrell is starring as Holmes and Reilly is playing his erstwhile sidekick, Dr. Watson.

Character details are being kept locked up in the basement of 221B Baker St., but sources say Fiennes and Laurie will slip on the shoes of two beloved characters from the Holmes oeuvre.

Jonathan Kadin is overseeing the movie for Columbia. Chris Henchy and Jessica Elbaum are overseeing for Gary Sanchez.

Fiennes last appeared in scene-stealing work in the Coen Bros.’ Hail, Caesar! These days, the actor, nominated for an Oscar for Schindler’s List and known the world over for playing Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, is more heard than seen: he voiced a key character in stop-motion animation darling Kubo and the Two Strings and lends his pipes to Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in next month’s The Lego Batman Movie. He is repped by CAA, and Dalzell and Beresford in the UK.

Laurie is up for a Golden Globe this weekend for his performance in AMC’s The Night Manager, and he appeared on HBO’s Veep. The actor, who stars in Hulu’s series Chance, was last seen on the big screen as the villain in Disney’s Tomorrowland. He is repped by WME and UK’s Hamilton Hodell.

Sony announced that the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly pic “Holmes & Watson” has moved from Aug. 3, 2018 to Nov. 9, 2018.