Drew Pearce, creator of the British super hero comedy series No Heroics, has been hired by Warner Brothers to write the third film in the Robert Downey Jr. starring Sherlock Holmes franchise even though it is still two months before the second installment is released in theaters.
Pearce is currently working on the screenplay for Iron Man 3 and is also set to the DC Comics title The Mighty for Paramount.
Warner Brothers had also hired screenwriters Michele and Kieran Mulroney for the studio’s second Holmes film prior to the first one’s December 2009 release.
It seems as if for some of their franchises, studios are willing to get a jump on a follow-up installment by ordering a script before the current film is released. Disney had a script for a fifth Pirates film underway before On Stranger Tides was released this summer and Marvel Studios had retained the writers of Captain America: The First Avenger to start work on a sequel nearly five months before that film hit theaters.
