'Sherlock' season 4 air date, cast news & update: cult favorite to hit the big screen as a new trailer is released [video]

• comments
• 
• 

Sherlock fans will have a lot to look forward to this coming New Year's Day while they wait for the fourth season to commence, as Entertainment Weekly reports that the much-loved series will hit the big screen with a Victorian-era special titled "Sherlock: The Abominable Bride."

The film will be shown for a limited period in theaters in the United States and in the U.K. on Tuesday, Jan. 5, and Wednesday, Jan. 6. The creators also announced that the premiere date for the long-awaited episode will be on Jan. 1.

Fans who decide to see "Sherlock: The Abominable Bride" on the big screen will be treated to an additional 20 minutes of footage, with a guided set tour of 221B Baker Street with executive producer Steven Moffat, and a short "making of" video with Sherlock and Watson themselves, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

According to BBC Worldwide executive vice president Soumya Sriraman, "We have a franchise that creates excitement for all the right reasons. Three years in a row we’ve taken Doctor Who out to theaters and it breaks records each time. Fans want to congregate and share Sherlock together."

PBS Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton admitted that she's confident about the fans' passion for Sherlock. She said, "Sherlock fans just can’t get enough of the show in any way, shape or form. Offering the show on lots of platforms makes it more of an event; good buzz raises all boats."

In March, Moffat told EW of The Abominable Bride, "The special is its own thing. We wouldn’t have done the story we’re doing, and the way we’re doing it, if we didn’t have this special. It’s not part of the run of three episodes. So we had this to do it – as we could hardly conceal – it’s Victorian. [Co-creator Mark Gatiss] and me, we wanted to do this, but it had to be a special, it had to be separate entity on its own. It’s kind of in its own little bubble."

Sriraman spoke of their direction in setting it in the Victorian era, saying, "I went cautiously into this Victorian [storyline] and I was wondering how it was all going to play out. I was like, ‘Wow!’"

BBC reports that according to Moffat, "Sherlock on the big screen. For us, it's a giant leap backwards - into Victorian London. The mean streets of 1895 have never looked so good."

View the trailer below.

Fans can purchase tickets online beginning November 6 via fathomevents.com or in participating theater box offices. Sherlock: The Abominable Bride is expected to be shown in more than 500 theaters in the United States alone, and in all branches of Picturehouse cinemas and selected Odeon and Vue cinemas in the U.K. The film also stars Rupert Graves, Una Stubbs, Louise Brealey and Amanda Abbington.