Rob Brydon and Rebecca Hall cast in Will Ferrell's upcoming comedy Holmes and Watson

Rob Brydon and Rebecca Hall have joined the cast of Sony Pictures' upcoming comedy Holmes and Watson. The twosome will appear alongside John C Reilly and Will Ferrell, who are set to play literary buddies John Watson and super sleuth Sherlock Holmes respectively.

Brydon, who was last seen in fantasy sequel The Huntsman: Winter's War, will be playing Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade, who often enlists Sherlock for his most unusual cases, while Christine's Hall will play Dr Grace Hart, the first female doctor to practice in London.

Get Hard director Etan Cohen is already on board to helm the movie, working with a script inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novels. Brydon and Hall aren't the only new names added to the film's roster however. Black Mirror actor Kelly Macdonald has also signed on for the project, set to play Mrs Hudson, the landlady of the abode at the iconic address, 221B Baker Street.

Orange Is The New Black's Lauren Lapkus was cast in the film earlier this week as Millie, a woman whose intellect a mind can give Sherlock's a run for his money, and as a result he becomes "obsessed" with her, according to Deadline.

Holmes and Watson are popular characters on both the big and small screen, having been the inspiration behind Guy Ritchie's blockbusters with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr and the CBS series Elementary featuring Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller.

Sir Ian McKellen played an older version of the lead protagonist in Mr Holmes last year and of course, Doyle's well-loved characters are also portrayed by Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch in the Emmy-nominated BBC mini-series, Sherlock.

But it will be certainly be refreshing to see the well-known tales with a unashamedly comedic spin on them. The last time they were played for pure comedy was in 1998 in Without A Clue, where Michael Caine played an idiotic Holmes, with the real mastermind being Ben Kingsley's Dr Watson.

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