Variety reports that Jude Law will join Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" project for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures. Law will play Sherlock Holmes' sidekick, Watson. Robert Downey Jr. has already been cast in the lead role as Holmes.

Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin are producing. Production begins early next month in London.

The film will incorporate the classic tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the comic book "Sherlock Holmes." Studio is still casting some of the principal roles, including the villain, Blackwood.