‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ to hit Indian theatres on 3rd June

by Suman Gupta

Having entertained audiences with six successful seasons and a feature film, the Crawleys are back with another feature film with ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’. Sequel to the British television show and movie, Downton Abbey 2 is all set to hit the theatres in India on 3rd June. The much-anticipated cinematic return of the global phenomenon reunites the beloved cast as they go on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the Dowager Countess’ newly inherited villa.

Adding to the drama, this is also the era of movie making where an entire film unit has landed up at Downton Abbey to shoot a movie, as the world makes the transition from silent pictures to talkies. A New Era sees many familiar faces returning for the second Downton Abbey movie – and they’ll be joined by some new, exciting additions too.

Talking about working yet again with an ensemble cast, many of whom are reprising their roles, Simon Curtis, the director, said, “I’ve been very lucky in that some of the things I’d made in television, like David Copperfield and Cranford, meant I’d had experience working with a big ensemble cast. What’s intimidating about directing Downton, (which I’m sure all the previous directors have also felt), is that there’s no such thing as an easy scene in Downton. There might be as many as four mini scenes within one bigger scene and four different clusters of conversations that all require coverage from different angles and that all takes time. In this film we had the usual ensemble of actors, then added in the crew and actors for the film within the film, plus our own crew and that amounted to over 50 setups for one particular dinner scene across three days. It was a relief to get to the end of that scene.”

Alongside the Crawley sisters, Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) and Edith Pelham, now Marchioness of Hexham (Laura Carmichael), the series also marks the return of fan-favourite character Lady Violet, played by Maggie Smith.