Focus Features and Carnival Films today announced the start of principle photography is due to begin on the Downton Abbey movie.  Already confirmed to return are the original principal cast from the acclaimed television series.  Joining the all-star cast will be Academy-Award® nominee and multi-award winning actress Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pride), starring alongside Geraldine James (Anne with an E, Beast), Simon Jones (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Brideshead Revisited), David Haig (Killing Eve, Penny Dreadful), Tuppence Middleton (War and Peace, The Imitation Game), Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders, The Crown) and Stephen Campbell Moore (History Boys, Lark Rise to Candleford), amongst others.

Academy-Award® winner Julian Fellowes who created Downton Abbey and wrote the film’s screenplay will produce alongside Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge.  Brian Percival (The Book Thief, About a Girl), who directed the series’ pilot, will now executive produce the movie, with Michael Engler (30 Rock, Sex And The City) returning to direct.  Nigel Marchant will also return to executive produce. 

The television series Downton Abbey followed the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who worked for them at the turn of the 20th century in an Edwardian English country home.  Over its 6 seasons, the series garnered 3 Golden Globe Awards, 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Special BAFTA award and 69 Emmy nominations in total, making Downton Abbey the most nominated non-US television show in the history of the Emmys - even earning a Guinness World Record for the highest critically rated TV show along the way. 

Gareth Neame, Carnival’s Executive Chairman and the film’s producer said, “We are excited that photography is about to start on the long awaited film and that the beloved main characters will be joined by such exceptional actors playing new roles unique to the movie.”

The Downton Abbey movie is a Carnival Films production, with Focus Features and Universal Pictures International distributing.