Julian Fellowes Says He’s “Still Waiting” for Studio to Greenlight ‘Downton Abbey’ Film

While The Crown may have satisfied at least some of the appetite for upper-class drama left by Downton Abbey after the Emmy-winning show ended on TV screens over a year ago, the Crawleys haven’t been forgotten. 

Just days before an official touring exhibition of all things Downton kicks off in Singapore (it lands in the U.S. next year), show creator Julian Fellowes has tipped a few splashes of fuel under the fire of the much-discussed big- screen spinoff. 

Speaking to The Guardian as part of a webchat Tuesday, Fellowes said that he’d been working on a script, but hadn’t yet received a formal nod from Universal. 

“We’re still waiting for that green light from the studio,” he said. “Then the biggest difficult will be rounding up all the cast as, compared with most series, it has such a large cast. And it needs to be Downton-esque. I know the cast are behind it and there’s a big audience out there.” 

But Fellowes, who is also prepping The Gilded Age, an NBCUniversal series set in New York toward the end of the 19th century, as well as a musical adaptation of Wind in the Willows, claimed he was confident that Downton would be, eventually, landing in cinemas. 

“On most movies, unless it’s Spider-Man 6, you’re taking a punt,” he said. “But it’s pretty likely the Downton movie will happen.”

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