Absolutely Fabulous movie will be co-financed by Fox Searchlight and the BBC. It will start shooting in October for a 2016 release.
Absolutely Fabulous movie will star shooting on 12th October in London.
Fox Searchlight will team with the BBC on a feature film version of the classic TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. We reported a little while ago the news of the film being in development at the Corporation, and now with Fox’s support, the film will get to see an international audience.
Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will head up the movie as their most famous characters, Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone, for a film that is set to start shooting in the UK in October.
The original TV series was born in 1992, and revolved around the lives of the aforementioned hard-drinking, drug-taking, completely and outrageously selfish middle-aged women. Their cruel humour focuses on the hypocrisy of today’s society, much to the chagrin of Edina’s more moral and conservative daughter, Saffron, who was played in the TV series by Julia Sawalha. June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks also starred.
Deadline reports that Ab-Fab: The Movie, which is its official title (at the moment), will feature all of the original cast, and will shoot in London prior to Christmas.
There were six seasons of the original show in all, the last being broadcast through a series of specials in 2012, but there is still a die-hard Ab-Fab audience out there, and an Absolutely Fabulous movie will surely delight.
Mandie Fletcher, who directed some episodes in the original TV series, as well as other recent sitcoms including Miranda Hart’s hugely popular Miranda, will direct the feature film.
Fox Searchlight and the BBC, through their BBC Films banner, will co-finance the project.
We’re guessing that the Absolutely Fabulous movie will release next summer, potentially in the August slot usually reserved for the release of a British comedy movie. The Inbetweeners and its sequel were placed in the slot in recent years, and this year, the Jack Whitehall movie Bad Education: The Movie, based on the TV show of the same name, assumes the prime August release date.
More news on the Absolutely Fabulous movie as we get it. For now, here are Edina and Patsy’s best bits.
