A little more than two years since it debuted the first trailer for the first Downton Abbey movie at CinemaCon 2019, the sequel to the Focus Features hit big-screen transfer also got a Las Vegas unveiling during Universal’s slate presentation Wednesday. Downton Abbey 2, whose official title is now Downton Abbey: A New Era, is due to open globally starting March 18, 2022.
The teaser footage revealed today reunites us with the Crawley family and the Downton staff as preparations for an overseas journey are underway. Intones Jim Carter’s Mr Carson in one of the few lines of dialogue in the footage, “The British are coming.” There’s lots of glitz and glamour and jazz, as well as, evidently, a wedding. No word so far on when the teaser will drop for the public.
The pic’s original principal cast including Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Charmichael, Carter and more have returned for the second film. New additions include Hugh Dancy, Laura Haddock, Nathalie Baye and Dominic West.
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The screenplay is by Downton creator and Oscar winner Julian Fellowes, with Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning Gareth Neame and Emmy Award-winning Liz Trubridge producing with Fellowes. BAFTA- and Emmy-nominated Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn) is directing.
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The initial film followed a visit to the Grantham estate by the King and Queen of England, and ended with a ball fit for the Royal Family. It was a global hit with $97 million in domestic box office and $237.9M worldwide.
Downton Abbey 2 is a Carnival Films production.
Focus also showed off fresh looks at Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller Last Night In Soho, which is world premiering at the Venice Film Festival; Kenneth Branagh’s TIFF selection Belfast; and Robert Eggers’ thriller The Northman.
Each of the films’ directors introduced their footage. Wright said he was “responsible for pushing Last Night In Soho into the fall” because he is “evangelical in the belief there is no better way to see a movie than on the big screen.” Branagh’s Belfast is “by far my most personal film.” Set in the tumultuous 1960s, the black-and-white pic includes “a lot of Irish humor” and is a film “about the glories of community.”