Downton Abbey Movie could be a PREQUEL
A Downton Abbey movie was finally confirmed to be in the works last month, with the President of NBCUniversal International Studios stating that a script was in the works before they start reuniting the cast. There is rumour of production being started as early as September!
Previous cast were surprised to hear this news when asked at the opening of the Downton Abbey Exhibition in Singapore, this now begs the question…..could the new movie be a PREQUEL!
As reported by The Mirror, Fellowes admitted at a China Exchange event this week to struggling to get the show’s cast in the same room together and began working on separate script.
“I hope there will be a film,” he said. “It will be sad if we don’t do one. Most films are a punt and we have a solid audience waiting for it. The difficulty is rounding up the actors who have now gone off to the four corners of the earth, in Hollywood, on Broadway, doing plays, doing series and so on.”
To get around this, Fellowes also claimed that he was working on a script that wouldn’t necessarily depend on the cast members that Downton fans have grown accustomed to, and instead younger versions of the likes of Maggie Smith and Lesley Nicol.
“I think it would be possible to do a prequel that was re-cast and do a love story – so you went right back and had the young cast arriving in the show as footmen and Mrs Patmore being a kitchen maid.”
It would make a kind of sense, with major Downton cast members like Michelle Dockery and Lily James currently working in film and television in the USA, and Maggie Smith expressing withering contempt for the whole exercise when asked about a possible movie in 2015.
Possible other Julian Fellowes Projects?
But there is further good news from Camp Fellowes. Fellowes has told that London’s Evening Standard that he is also hoping to make an adaptation of his novel, Belgravia.
He stated “I should perhaps be putting my feet up, but there are things I’ve got on my plate. I’m writing a slightly supernatural thriller at the moment where you can’t quite decide if it is supernatural, which I’m enjoying.
“Then I think I’m going to do Belgravia as a four-part series for television. I’m also hoping to do [New York-set period drama] The Gilded Age for NBC/Universal — there’s quite a lot going on.”
Watch this space for further details of casting and production.
