Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

This article is about the 2016 film. For the 2001 film, see Absolutely Fabulous (film).
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mandie Fletcher
Produced by
Written by Jennifer Saunders
Based on Absolutely Fabulous 
by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French
Starring
Music by Charlie Mole
Cinematography Chris Goodger
Edited by Anthony Boys
Gavin Buckley
Production
company
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates
  • 1 July 2016 (2016-07-01) (United Kingdom)
  • 22 July 2016 (2016-07-22) (United States)
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Language English

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is an upcoming 2016 British comedy film directed by Mandie Fletcher and written by Jennifer Saunders, based on the television show Absolutely Fabulous. The film stars Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield, and Jane Horrocks. Principal photography began on 12 October 2015 in the south of France. The film will be released in the UK on 1 July 2016.[1]

Premise

The ever glamorous and self-indulgent Patsy and Edina find themselves at the centre of a media firestorm when they accidentally kill Kate Moss.

Cast

Main cast

Celebrity cameos

Multiple celebrity cameo appearances in the film were announced over the course of filming.[2][5][6][7][8][9][10] In April 2016, Fox and the BBC confirmed a list of 60 cameos, most of which had not yet been announced, that would be featured in the film.[11][12] They include:

About 90 drag queens will also appear in the film, including Daniel Lismore, La Voix, Pandemonia Panacea, Chrissy Darling, Charlie Hides, A Man To Pet and Jonbenet Blonde.

Development and production

Saunders wrote and starred in Absolutely Fabulous, a British television sitcom for the BBC which originally ran for three series from 1992 to 1995, with intermittent additional series and specials through 2012.[13][14] Absolutely Fabulous features the champagne-fueled duo of "international PR guru" Edina Monsoon (Saunders) and "sex-crazed magazine editor" Patsy Stone (Lumley).[13] Additional characters include Edina's overly serious daughter Saffron (Sawalha), her daffy mother (Whitfield) and her even daffier assistant Bubble (Horrocks).[15]

Writing

Saunders planned to begin writing a film version of the series in 2012 and confirmed that she had began the writing process in 2014.

Deadline.com broke the story in November 2011 that Saunders planned to begin writing a film version of the series in 2012.[13] The movie would begin with Edina and Patsy waking up hungover after a party on an oligarch's yacht, with everyone else gone and the boat somewhere the middle of the ocean.[13][16] Saunders later said that she hoped to shoot the film on the French Riviera.[17] In March 2012, Saunders confirmed that she was working on the script.[18] She said of the plot:

Eddy and Patsy are looking for what they imagine glamorous life should be. They're constantly searching for that perfect place to sit or that perfect pair of sunglasses. It's Shangri-La and it just might be round the next corner. In the meantime, they decide to take Saffy's daughter off her—she calls her Jane, I call her Lola—but then they lose her.[18]

Calling herself the "worst procrastinator in the world",[19] Saunders said in January 2014:

Yes, well I have to do it now because I've threatened to a lot ... And then she [Lumley] kept announcing it and saying, "Yes, she's going to do it," and then Dawn French on our radio show at Christmas said, "I bet £100,000 that you don't write it," so now I have to write it, otherwise I have to pay her £100,000 ... Once you've had a bit of success, the last thing you want to do is go and make a flop. So the biggest fear in me is that it won't be good enough. I'm really nervous about it.[19]

In April 2014, Saunders again confirmed on BBC Breakfast that she was in the process of writing the film.[20] In April 2015, Saunders explained her delay with the script, saying "I think that's why I didn't do it for a while ... I thought, 'Wouldn't it be awful if it was awful.'"[21] She then quipped, "but we're all so old, and Joanna [Lumley] said to me, 'Do it before we die!' We're all on the brink."[21] Saunders also noted, "[The film] involves all the main characters and virtually everyone that's ever been in the series—all those characters".[21] Lumley confirmed in July 2015 that the film's script was finished and that production would begin in October.[22] She said of the project, "We are all there, the same old gang ... It is going to be ravishingly funny! Very gorgeous ... and completely fabulous!"[22]

Production and filming

In August 2015, Deadline.com reported that "all of the original main cast" were confirmed, with Fox Searchlight Pictures in negotiations to co-finance and co-produce the film with BBC Films, and to handle worldwide distribution.[23] It was also announced that Mandie Fletcher would direct, with Jon Plowman and Damian Jones as producers and Saunders, French and Maureen Vincent as executive producers.[23] Deadline.com later reported that Christine Langan, Steve Milne, Christian Eisenbeiss and Nichola Martin were also executive producing, with DanTram Nguyen, Vice President of Production and Katie Goodson-Thomas, Director of Production overseeing the project for Fox .[24]

Principal photography on the film began on 12 October 2015 in south of France.[23][25] The BBC and Fox Searchlight subsequently released a promotional image of Saunders and Lumley in character on a yacht.[24] Along with Sawalha, Whitfield and Horrocks,[2] Kathy Burke was confirmed to be reprising her role as Magda,[3] and Kate Moss, Emma Bunton and Lulu would appear in guest roles as themselves, as they had in the TV series.[2] The cameo appearances of Harry Styles, Kelly Hoppen and Kim Kardashian were also announced as filming began.[2] Multiple other celebrity cameos were announced during production,[2][5][6][7][8][9][10] culminating with a 60-name list released in April 2016.[11][12]

Deadline.com's Ali Jaafar wrote of the film's plot in October 2015:

Edina and Patsy are still oozing glitz and glamour, living the high life they are accustomed to; shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London’s trendiest hotspots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent and live the high life forevermore![24]

Controversy

In December 2015, the film sparked controversy and accusations of racism when it was announced that Caucasian comedian Janette Tough would be playing a Japanese character named Huki Muki.[26][27] Korean American comedian Margaret Cho accused Ab Fab: The Movie of “yellowface”, which she described as "when white people portray Asian people. And unfortunately it’s happening in this film."[26]

Release

The film will be released in the UK on 1 July 2016,[1] and in the US on 22 July 2016.[28]

References

  1. 1 2 Panisch, Alex (10 December 2015). "Jennifer Saunders Confirms Ab Fab Movie Release Date, Plot Details". Out. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Percival, Ashley (19 October 2015). "Absolutely Fabulous: Jennifer Saunders And Joanna Lumley Begin Shooting For New Film As Eddie Monsoon And Patsy Stone". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 Warner, Sam (12 October 2015). "Kathy Burke is back as Magda in the Absolutely Fabulous movie". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Jimmy Krankie to star with Jerry Hall and Lily Cole in new Absolutely Fabulous movie". Daily Mirror. 14 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Wong, Curtis M (23 November 2015). "Chris Colfer Lands A Role in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 "Joan Collins's diary: 'I'm in deep shock at Jackie's death, but life goes on'". The Spectator. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 "Rylan Clark-Neal". Twitter. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 Miller, Michael (2 December 2015). "Rebel Wilson Shares Pics of Her Absolutely Fabulous Time on the Set of Upcoming Movie". People. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Sowray, Bibby (6 November 2015). "Kate Moss meets a watery end in Ab Fab: The Movie". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 Sowray, Bibby (1 December 2015). "Cara Delevingne joins Kate Moss and Stella McCartney in Ab Fab: The Movie". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Stolworthy, Jacob (25 April 2016). "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie will have a ridiculous number of cameos". The Independent. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stolworthy, Jacob (27 April 2016). "Absolutely Fabulous film trailer shows off its many cameos, from Kate Moss to Jon Hamm". The Independent. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Adler, Tim (8 November 2011). "Jennifer Saunders To Pen Absolutely Fabulous Movie". Deadline.com. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  14. ↑ Sperling, Daniel; Mansell, Tom (15 May 2012). "Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley teases Olympic special". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  15. ↑ Emery, Debbie (29 April 2015). "Absolutely Fabulous Officially Heading to the Big Screen". TheWrap. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  16. ↑ Child, Ben (9 November 2011). "Jennifer Saunders to write Absolutely Fabulous movie". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  17. ↑ Bolonik, Kera (29 December 2011). "Still Ab Fab: Jennifer Saunders". New York. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  18. 1 2 "Saunders excited about Ab Fab film". Irish Independent. 26 March 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  19. 1 2 Martin, Liam (4 January 2014). "Jennifer Saunders will write Absolutely Fabulous movie". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  20. ↑ "BBC Breakfast". Facebook. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  21. 1 2 3 Lee, Ben (29 April 2015). "Jennifer Saunders on Absolutely Fabulous movie: 'We might shoot in the autumn'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  22. 1 2 Reynolds, Simon (29 July 2015). "Sweetie darling, we're going to the movies! Joanna Lumley confirms Absolutely Fabulous film". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  23. 1 2 3 Jaafar, Ali (11 August 2015). "Fox Searchlight In Discussions For Absolutely Fabulous Feature Film With Original Cast". Deadline.com. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  24. 1 2 3 Jaafar, Ali (19 October 2015). "First Look: Absolutely Fabulous Feature Film Starts Shooting". Deadline.com. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  25. ↑ "On the Set for 10/16/15: Ab Fab: The Movie & Planet of the Apes Sequel Start Shooting While Star Trek Beyond Wraps". SSN Insider. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  26. 1 2 Blumsom, Amy (December 16, 2015). "Ab Fab movie accused of racism". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  27. ↑ Lydia Smith (December 16, 2015). "Absolutely Fabulous movie and yellowface: Why offensive racial stereotyping still blights Hollywood". International Business Times UK. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie". BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved February 23, 2016.

External links

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