Last month, our period drama dreams came true when it was finally confirmed that a *Downton Abbey *spin-off movie has gone into production.
‘There’s a movie in the works,’ said Michael Edelstein, the president of NBC Universal International Studios, revealing ‘we are working on getting the script right and then we’ve got to figure out how to get the [cast] together.’ It seems however, that the latter is proving something of a problem: such was the career-making effect of Downton that its former stars are now busy with other high profile projects around the world.
As a solution, it seems that series creator Julian Fellowes is proposing an interesting alternative: that the film could be a prequel, set around 30 years before the start of the first season, allowing for an entirely new cast.
‘I hope there will be a film. It will be sad if we don’t do one,’ he told The Mirror. ‘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.’
‘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,’ he proposed.
As for casting, Fellowes already has one idea for a cameo appearance, claiming that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would be ‘a natural fit’ for the movie.
‘We will have to see what we can arrange,’ he added.
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