Hard to believe it was a full year ago that notoriously reclusive auteur Terrence Malick's first film since 2005's The New World premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to equal parts enrapture and befuddlement.  Now, a year after The Tree of Life's first screening, we have word that the writer-director's next project now has an official title and an MPAA rating, both of which give an indication that the film, which stars Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams, is pretty much ready to go.

As the nation recovered from last weekend's Super Bowl festivities, it sought entertainment through the movies, resulting in a very busy weekend, resulting in a few minor records being broken.  So far in this young year, the box office has been surprisingly robust, particularly considering the often feeble showings throughout 2011.  This particular weekend, no less than four major movies opened to well over $20 million, quite an accomplishment on a seemingly unremarkable February frame.  Strong showings all around meant that, overall, there was a 30% increase from the comparable weekend last year.

Synopsis: A newlywed couple recovers from a car accident that puts the wife in a coma. Waking up with severe memory loss, her husband endeavors to win her heart again.

Joel Silver is without a doubt one of the most successful Hollywood producers of all-time. His career goes back over thirty-years and he is responsible for some of the most popular movies ever including 48 Hrs., Predator, Die Hard, the Lethal Weapon series, and The Matrix franchise.

Producer Susan Downey first worked with Silver on the 2002 film Ghost Ship, and their collaboration continued on such films as Cradle 2 the Grave, and House of Wax. But it was the movie Gothika that probably had the biggest impact on Susan Downey personally, as that is where she met her now husband, two-time Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr.

Silver had first worked with Downey Jr. in the early ‘80s on Weird Science, and was no stranger to the actor’s brilliant, yet unusual body of work. Silver and the Downeys would eventually go on to make the 2005 cult classic comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang together, but after the actor’s inexplicable success in a series of films based on a certain Marvel Comics superhero (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and next summer’s The Avengers), Silver and the married couple wanted to create their own movie franchise at Warner Bros. They began with ‘2009s smash hit action-mystery Sherlock Holmes, and now hope to continue that success with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which opens in theaters on December 16^th.

Opening in theaters on December 16th is the long awaited sequel to '2009s hit action mystery Sherlock Holmes, entitled Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Director Guy Ritchie returns to helm the second film of the franchise that once again stars Oscar-nominee Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man 2) in the title role and fellow Oscar nominee Jude Law (Hugo) as his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson. Also making a return are actors Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris), Eddie Marsan (Hancock), and Kelly Reilly (Me and Orson Welles), who are joined by series newcomers Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Stephen Fry (V For Vendetta), and Jared Harris (TV's Mad Men) as the villain Professor Moriarty. 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down and chat with writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney (Justice League) about their work on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The writers discussed the new film, joining the franchise, the "bromance" between Holmes and Watson, limiting Rachel MacAdams' role and creating a new female character, developing Moriarty's evil scheme, and introducing Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes. 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is just a few weeks away from hitting theaters from coast to coast, so Warner Bros has obliged with its very last poster for the sequel.  2009's Sherlock Holmes established a pretty easy to understand formula, taking Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective and liberally adding speed-ramping action, big visual effects, the skewed charm of Robert Downey Jr., and plenty of barely-repressed homoeroticism.  In keeping with this philosophy, the final A Game of Shadows one sheet is pretty simple, with Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson on the streets of Paris.  You know for sure its Paris because of the Eiffel Tower in the background, as has been the standard means of denoting Paris onscreen since time immemorial.

Much in the same way that Batman Begins ended with a teasing promise that a sequel would introduce The Joker, 2009's Sherlock Holmes concluded with assurances that another round of ass-kicking and detective work would find Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective going head-to-head with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty.  A new featurette promoting Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows gives our most extensive look at Jared Harris as Moriarty, along with plenty of other new footage and interview snippets featuring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and returning director Guy Ritchie.

Rather than focusing on Holmes finally meeting his intellectual match, the marketing for this sequel has thrown oodles of speed-ramping action at audiences, demonstrating again and again that Holmes and Watson will continue to beat bad guys senseless and get shot at.  A lot.  This new featurette isn't too different, but it sprinkles in some tiny ideas of the actual plot.  Not many, but a few.

Two years back, Warner Bros made a blockbuster out of the world's most famous detective in Sherlock Holmes by giving Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant investigator a more robust physicality and sending him through a bunch of large-scale action and fight scenes.  Though there was absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that the upcoming sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows would provide more of the same, the marketing campaign is singlemindedly focused on showing audiences that this sequel will indeed feature no shortage of speed-ramping, gun-firing action.  Since it's impossible to put speed-ramping action on a poster, four new character posters for the film show Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, and Jared Harris each wielding a weapon, from a club to throwing knives and couple of handguns.

The first teaser trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dropped back in the dog days of summer, and it was jam-packed with even more of the speed-ramping action that Guy Ritchie brought to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective with 2009's Sherlock Holmes.  It also, of course, featured Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law bickering as Holmes and Dr. Watson, along with a tiny snippet of Jared Harris as Holmes' great nemesis, Professor Moriarty. 

With two months until the film's release, Warner Bros has issued a full theatrical trailer which once again puts the focus squarely on the action.  Moriarty doesn't get much more time than he did before, though Holmes does establish the stakes as the entirety of Western Civilization.  There's a bit more of Holmes and Watson doing their thing, but mostly this trailer is action, action, action.  Moriarty's evil scheme must involve weapons manufacturing, because there is a crazy amount of gunfire in this trailer.

In 2009, Warner Bros and director Guy Ritchie made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterful detective and his regular sidekick appealing to moviegoers by adding no shortage of punching, kicking, explosions, and stuntwork to a mystery in Sherlock Holmes.  The sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is just over two months from hitting theaters, so promotion for the two-fisted adventures of Holmes and Dr. Watson should be ramping up in the very near future.  Today, a sign of things to come are two new character posters featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the vaguely homoerotic investigatorial duo.