Downton Abbey star teases a new film adaptation

LOS ANGELES • Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville has teased a sequel to the hit 2019 film adaptation.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show recently, Bonneville said: “Here's the deal: If everybody who is offered a vaccine takes a vaccine, we can make a movie. We will make a movie.

The actor, who is volunteering as a marshal at his local vaccination centre and has had his first jab, said that he has seen a script for a sequel.

“It's the usual thing. The planets are circling.

“They are beginning to get into alignment,” Bonneville said. “There is a thing called coronavirus knocking around and until that is under control in a sensible way, we are not going to be able to get all those ducks in a row. Mixing my metaphors here.

“But there is certainly the intention to do it. We would love to do it, we are desperate to do it, and I think it's the sort of pleasurable release of a movie like the first one was, that audiences would enjoy after all of this mess we have been through,” the actor said.

The 2019 film, directed by Michael Engler, grossed some US$238 million worldwide. It is based on the hit series created by Julian Fellowes

that unfolded over six seasons from 2011 through 2016. The saga of an English aristocratic family in the early 20th century proved to be a global smash.

The series was produced by Carnival Films, a division of NBC Universal International Studios. It was festooned with awards, winning several Golden Globes, Primetime Emmys and BAFTAs.

Bonneville also revealed there was “forward momentum” on Paddington 3, “somewhere on the horizon.”

Bonneville will next be seen in To Olivia, the story of the tempestuous marriage between actress Patricia Neal, Oscar-winner for Hud (1963), and famed Charlie

and the Chocolate Factory writer Roald Dahl, where he plays Dahl. Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) plays Neal.

To Olivia debuts Feb. 19 on

the British service Sky Cinema. Availability in Canada or elsewhere has not been announced.

FOCUS FEATURES Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville in the 2019 Downton Abbey film. Bonneville says the cast “would love to do” a followup.