Ugh and Ugh-er

Turns out that Warner Bros isn't the only major Hollywood studio that wants to deface The Great Detective. Columbia Studios will team Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell in a comedic rendition of a Holmes-Watson tale. Cohen will play Sherlock Holmes and Ferrell will play Dr. John Watson, Holmes' biographer and co-adventurer.

Now, Holmes has been played for laughs before. Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley had plenty of fun with him in Without a Clue, and Gene Wilder brought his wild hair and Marty Feldman his wild eyes to the scene in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.

But Cohen's schticks age quickly, and Saturday Night Live alum Ferrell is on a fast train to Chevy Chase land, thanks to crap like Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro. The project's writer, Etan Cohen, has some fun King of the Hill episodes to his credit, but has also written for the awful American Dad and will burden the world with the one-joke war-movie comedy Tropic Thunder later this summer. Producer Judd Apatow has been a wunderkind of sorts with some well-thought of comedies, but lately his rose has been losing its bloom.

One Matt Tolmach, an official of some sort with Columbia, says this:

"Just the idea of Sacha and Will as Sherlock Holmes and Watson makes us laugh," said Col co-prexy Matt Tolmach.

If by "laugh," you mean "retch without ceasing for a thousand years," then I guess, OK, sure. I'll agree.