Ever since filming began last year on Sherlock Holmes, there have been rumors that director Guy Ritchie and stars Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. were all for infusing the film with a whiff of homoeroticism between Holmes and Dr. Watson. All three men went on the record joking about how they wanted to make the story an affectionate bromance. Now that the Holmes publicity campaign is in full swing, RDJ and Jude are still joking about their bromance, and now the studio is getting twitchy. PopEater’s gossip guy claims that studio executives at Warner Bros are trying to get them to shut up. They want to promote the film as straight-up straight action flick, “not Brokeback Mountain 2.”

Publicists for the upcoming ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movie are very concerned that its star, Robert Downey Jr., can’t stop hinting that the great dapper detective’s relationship with Dr. Watson may involve more than just solving crime.

“When Robert joked with Letterman that they might be homos, Warner Brother executives died,” laughed one industry insider who believes Downey is messing with studio bigwigs.

“The studio wants to position this as an action-packed adventure, not ‘Brokeback Mountain 2,’” my insider joked.

Yet fear not — I have been told the film will not disappoint any hardcore Holmes fans, and if the world’s sneakiest sleuth does have a secret love that dare not speak its name, he doesn’t kiss and tell in this film. There is, however, a good amount of man-on-man bare-chested fighting, so make of that what you will.

[From PopEater]

Back in 2007, one of the guys who did publicity for 300 got an award for the way they marketed the film as both a straight-guy action film and a film that could be fully embraced by the gay community. I think it’s nice that RDJ wants to let his gay fan base know that this could be the film for them… but if it’s not a film about oiled muscle men in loincloths, I’ve got to wonder about the crossover potential between “the gay film-going market” (which is still seen as a niche market) and “mainstream audiences”. Although RDJ is half-naked in part of the film… which could mean crossover has been achieved!