It seems like we will be seeing more sequels in Hollywood next year.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law will be reprising their roles as detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively, in Sherlock Holmes 2. The sequel does not have an official title yet, but it is planned to be released in December 16, 2011, in the US.

Holmes and Watson will be joined by three new characters: villain Professor Moriarty, Holmes’ brother Mycroft, and a French gypsy. It is still unknown who will play Moriarty and Mycroft, but for Holmes’ nemesis, some of the names considered were Brad Pitt, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, and Gary Oldman.

As for the French gypsy, reports say that it will be played by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace. Rapace starred as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which will have a Hollywood adaptation.

Guy Ritchie will still helm Holmes 2 with a new set of writers, Kieran and Michele Mulroney.

Another movie that will make new rounds in the cinemas is Transformers, although this time, it will be minus Megan Fox and a few robots. Shia Labeouf’s character will be joined by Carly played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Not much was revealed by director Michael Bay about the third installment, only that it’s not going to be as robot-heavy as the prequel.

“There will be a nice crescendo ending,” Bay said. “It gets much more into the robot character. The last time you kind of met a few of the robots; this time you’re gonna get a much cooler landscape.”

Aside from this, Transformers 3 might also go 3D.

"It's a process we're testing with some 'Transformers' scenes," he said. "How successful it is with my movie in terms of a lot of real stuff coming out of the frame, real dirt, real complicated little particles coming towards the lens, because hopefully that process will work. I've seen some tests that look great on other movies. I just want to see how it looks on my footage."

Transformers 3 will be released in the US in July 2011.

Sources:

FirstShowing
EW
AceShowbiz
GossipCop