Free Republic

A big-screen transfer for Downton Abbey has been rumoured for almost as long as the show has been on television. But on Friday the movie was confirmed, with creator Julian Fellowes scripting, The Book Thief’s Brian Percival to direct and Universal Studios to distribute. Production will start later this summer, with a release next year likely. Plot details remain under wraps, but it is expected the action will pick up directly from the last season’s finale, which was set in 1926. “When the television series drew to a close it was our dream to bring the millions of global fans...

"Downton Abbey" is losing its Dowager Countess. Maggie Smith, who plays the sharp-tongued Violet on the beloved PBS drama, told the Times of London Sunday that the upcoming sixth season will be her last. Perhaps more alarming to fans, if that’s possible, was Smith’s broad hint that this could also be the finale for the show itself. "They say this is the last one, and I can't see how it could go on," Smith told the Times. “I mean, I certainly can't keep going ... To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We're into the late 1920s."