Britney To Play Female Sherlock Holmes

Pop princess Britney Spears is close to signing up to play a modern day female Sherlock Holmes in a new movie project.

The singer is looking for a suitable vehicle for her acting talents since her debut film Crossroads last year.

The project, entitled 221Bcause, is set to be filmed around the busy singer's musical commitments but is to be completed in time for a 2004 release to tie in with the American presidential elections.

A film insider says, "221bcause is the Sherlock Holmes story set in the present and with a female lead. It gets its name from Holmes' address in London's Baker Street. In the story 221b Baker Street now houses a travel agency.

"Britney is a New Yorker working there and she notices letters arriving for Sherlock Holmes. She starts to answer them as the detective and it leads her back to New York trying to trace the president's son."

However, Britney may not have been the first actress approached for the role of the fictional detective who used morphine and cocaine in his previous incarnation.

The source explains, "Jennifer Love Hewitt was originally up for the role but her bosses weren't keen on the drug angle of the character."