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DOWNTON ABBEY, the movie!
25th September 2019 @ 6:30 am - 8:30 pm
THE FILM WILL PREMIERE IN SEPTEMBER 25!
The Crawley family and the world of Downton Abbey are now coming to the big screen! The family seems to pull together in the right direction and the forces of drama are actually external, which is quite fun. It’s sort of Downton versus the world. Mary and Edith get along now, although there is still a bit of sibling rivalry.
THE STORY WILL PICK UP IN THE FALL OF 1927.
The film will center around a royal visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Downton, a storyline inspired by a trip they really took to Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire in 1912. Here’s what else we know:
Joanne Froggatt, who plays Lady Mary’s long-suffering maid, Anna, teased that her character is finally in a “good place” in the film. “She and Mr Bates have a baby boy, now 18 months old,” she said, also revealing that there will be “romance, fun, surprises, sadness and intrigue.”
Allen Leech, who plays Tom Branson, promised more screen time shared between Branson and Lady Mary. “You’ll see more of Branson and Lady Mary together,” he said. “They are a great team, and also in the film, more so than ever before. There’s even a little romance.
According to Michelle Dockery, Lady Mary is “settled” in the film. “What you see is her for once being settled,” Dockery says. “She and her second husband Henry Talbot are very supportive of one another and they’re good friends. It’s nice to see Mary in that way as opposed to being in constant turmoil about her love life.”
MAGGIE SMITH IS COMING BACK!
The news of Smith’s return to the story comes as a surprise. She hasn’t been so thrilled about continuing the Crawley story in the past. When asked on the Graham Norton Show if she was glad the show was over, Maggie Smith said, “Oh yeah. “By the time we finished, [The Dowager Countess] must have been about 110. It couldn’t go on and on, it just didn’t make sense,” she continued.
AND OF COURSE, GORGEOUS COSTUMES, AND A FEW TIARAS!
The Crawley family’s clothes were a highlight of the Downton Abbey television series, and the film will be no different. “I had to present quite an edited view of the characters’ wardrobes–while still touching on all of the fashion highlights from 1927, where appropriate,” costume designer Anna Robbins revealed during a conversation about women in the arts. “That was actually the year that hemlines were shortest, but given the events of the film, it would have been inappropriate to have knees on display! I did get to play around with quite a few more tiaras though thanks to our newly married characters.”
Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary in the series, also spoke of the film’s grandeur. “There are more diamonds and fancier food,” she told Vanity Fair, “and it’s really interesting to see that the family and the servants are not at the top. They’re now having to impress the royals, which I think is really great—to see them kind of getting in a bit of a tiz about the arrival of the king and queen. Mary is in true form of trying to keep everybody in order.” “For my first Downton fitting I felt quite emotional putting those dresses back on,” she told InStyle. “Some were reused, but because it’s a film, we also dialed it up a notch. We could afford to go slightly grander.”
A BOOK ABOUT THE FILM WILL BE RELEASED IN TANDEM WITH THE MOVIE.
It will feature a forward by Julian Fellowes, as well as a behind the scenes look at the filming process.
