Ian McKellen is set to reunite with his Gods and Monsters writer-director Bill Condon for the Sherlock Holmes drama A Slight Trick of the Mind.

The actor will play a retired Sherlock Holmes, who is living in a Sussex village with his housekeeper and her son who wants to be a detective himself in 1947. He remains haunted by an unsolved case from 50 years ago which he can only remember fragments of, a confrontation with an angry husband and a secret relationship with his wife.

Jeffrey Hatcher (The Duchess) wrote the screenplay adaptation based on Mitch Cullin's novel, with Anne Carey, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Aviv Giladi producing. Here's what Anne Carey had to say about the project.

"Mitch Cullin's elegiac novel is not so much about solving a mystery, as it is about accepting life's mysteries. I could not be more excited about the talent who have come together to make this film a reality."

No production schedule was given. Ian McKellen most recently starred in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the end credits scene in The Wolverine. He will next be seen in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and X-Men: Days of Future Past.