WEBVTT - 'Downton Abbey' Masterminds See Long Future for Franchise Beyond New Sequel 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.400 Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:13.880 which we speak with some of the brightest minds working 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.680 in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.520 When the new movie Downton Abbey The New Era hits 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.320 US theaters this week, it will mark the fifth collaboration 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.160 between my next guests. Julian Fellows is the Emmy winning 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.880 writer behind Dowton, and Gareth Name is the executive chairman 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.600 of the movie's production outfit, Carnival Films. Together they have 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.440 overseen a property that has crossed over from mere global 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:45.000 TV sensation to full fledged franchise. They're here to talk 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:56.320 about this process. Coming up next on Strictly Business, and 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.920 we're back with Julian Fellows and Gareth Name, the ark 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.360 gitext behind Dalton Abbey, which is returning to theaters this 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.759 week for a sequel. Thanks for coming on the podcast, gentlemen, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:12.440 Thank you ver much. Thanks so, Julian's let's start with you. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:18.080 It's been probably about thirteen years since Dalton was first 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.440 conceived and began, and so I have to ask, did 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.000 you have any inkling back then about how big this 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.720 would become, that this would eventually even jump over to movies. 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.840 Um No. The short answer to that is no, But um, 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:35.960 I think it was a It was a different climate 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.440 at that time when period drama was thought to have 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.160 died and that the audience wasn't there for it anymore. 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:49.760 And Gareth didn't believe that, uh, and nor did I, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.440 and nor did Peter at I t V uh And 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.000 so we were in a sense, how to prove something. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.920 The idea was originally Garrett's that he gone to see 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.600 Gosford a park of film I wrote, and we were 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.320 having dinner actually about another project completely, but in the 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.280 middle of it he said, would you ever go back 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.440 into that territory for television? And that was really the 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:22.200 beginning of the idea. Although Downtown is much warm up 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:26.920 than Gosford, it's a much cuddlier place where you know, 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:32.360 Gosford is all about compromises and reluctant decisions and wrong 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.519 decisions and so on, whereas on the whole in Downtown 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.240 everyone is doing their best and it is essentially a 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.680 warm world they live in. But nevertheless, you can see 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.440 how the one was inspired by the other. And then 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.320 we went forward it actually it was it was quite 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.800 an event less wasn't it getting it going? Because you 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.760 went to pet and you and that was it. Really. 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.000 I think we had a meeting and I was commissioned 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.200 right one script and I wrote it, and they commissioned 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.080 a series and we made this Seips. It was a 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:10.600 rather trouble free journey. But of course, to answer your question, no, 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.600 we thought we would make a successful period drama. That 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.040 was what we set out to do. We had a 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.240 jolly good cast and um, and we did it. But 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:27.640 the kind of enormous global phenomenon really started a year 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.480 later when it came out in America and then it 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.080 went all over the world and then it turned into 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.640 a sort of magic carpet ride. Gareth, can you take 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.200 us back to that time where the period drama seemed dead? 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.920 Why did it seem dead and why did you think 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.320 it could come back to life? Well, I don't quite 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.440 agree with Julian in that respect. I did. I never 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.240 thought it was dead. Um, it's a perennial favorite. And 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.280 when I got to know Julian in the early two thousand's, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.320 and I was not only you know, I'd watch Gosfie 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.800 part as a viewer and I thought, you know this, 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.200 this was you know, it was the attention to detail, 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:12.440 and it was the knowledge. I watched that film and 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.280 I sort of relaxed into my theater chair, thinking, this 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.320 is the most realistic depiction that I've ever seen in 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.000 my life. And I think everything that came before it 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.960 I didn't really believe and I now believe this. And 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:31.480 then I started reading sort of Julian's novels and I thought, 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.640 this is and I mean, you know, the Academy Award 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.559 that that he one for the screenplayer gossip part should 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.640 have been enough. But you know that combined with the 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.599 with reading Julian's novels, I thought, this is a writer 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.760 that has something to say right around the world, and 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:54.120 it is highly commercially with my production company hat On. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.200 I just thought, this is this is a you know, 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.640 and as a British producer, I'm I'm always looking for 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.560 expressly British topics. There are certain you know, there are 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.599 certain subjects that are done all over the world, but 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:10.680 the English country house, the class system that you know, 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.880 the British Empire and all that kind of thing is 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.359 is a unique sort of British subject for drama. And 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.200 I thought, this is, you know, really something that I 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.800 think could be highly popular both in the UK and 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.760 around the world. So UM And around the same time 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.480 that I was getting to know Julie and I watched, 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.680 I happened to see a historic episode of Upstairs Downstairs. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:36.599 I didn't sit down and watch it, but I was 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.479 flicking through the channels one day and I find I 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.599 found on channel three hundred and sixty eight. I found 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:47.000 this nineteen seven early nineteen seventies episode of a show 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.240 that had been popular in Britain and America called Upstairs Downstairs. 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.040 It was a similar sort of set up, but I 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:55.400 so I knew what the show was as soon as 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.919 I alighted on the channel. I knew what it was, 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.880 but I've never watched it. And I thought at the time, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.560 I was about forty or something, and I thought, if 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.760 I've never watched it, because I was too young to 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.560 have seen it, there's two generations, you know, behind me 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.360 that have never have never been exposed to this UM, 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.560 And I thought, you know what this is. This is 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.160 a perennial favorite, and what Julian was doing in in 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.000 in Gossip Park is something that would work as well 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.800 or or better actually an episodic television because you play 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:32.520 to the strengths of you know, an audience becoming familiar 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.279 with the characters and taking them, you know, to their 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.680 heart and and and becoming more more and more vested 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.960 in in the whole thing. And so yeah, so we 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.359 so Julie and I met up and I said, I 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.000 think we should do this as an episodic TV series, 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.640 And so that's how it came about. And as I said, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.360 I never thought the genre was over it. It's the genre, 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:58.000 like many of these genres that that that need constantly reinventing. 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:00.840 So Julian, I mean it's I was like Gareth had 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:02.800 a different take on it, and I want to go 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.160 back to you, what at that time had you souring 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.240 on the period drama? What needed to be reinvented? We 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.720 just I've had a couple of things turned down. I 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.920 mean in my personal life, a couple of things turned 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.720 down because period drama. They didn't really want to get 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.000 into it, you know. I when this happens from time 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.400 to time with all different companies and channels and everything, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.280 it's not a big thing. But also Peter, I keep 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.040 forgetting his surname. What is his name? At the I 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.800 t V. The head of I TV them was called 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:40.800 Peter Fincham Fincham. Um. He was telling me that when 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:46.400 he decided to make Dumbton, a lot of his friends said, 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.560 oh no, that's that's all finished, all that you you'll 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.960 lose your shirts on that. Dude, you shouldn't do that 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.480 because it was obviously going to be very expensive. Um. 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.000 So it was just a kind of thing I picked up. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.920 I mean, I don't suppose I thought it was dead forever, 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:06.080 because nothing is dead forever. The question is whether instead 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.440 now and and that that was what he had been 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.119 told and what I had been told. But it turned 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.240 out that Gareth was right. It wasn't dead, and there 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.800 was an audience for it. I suppose looking back, there 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.040 just wasn't at that time a period drama that was 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.400 a particularly big hit, and so it's sort of kept 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:29.240 it out of the footlights a bit. It amused. It 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:31.800 amuses me a bit that you talk about it being expensive, 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.880 because of course that first season on television in we 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.800 now look back on it as being extraordinarily cheap compared 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:44.640 with absolutely and of course doubt and I think without 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:49.120 question reinvigorated the genre. Fast forward to today where the 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.680 gentlemen also have another hit here in US on HBO 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:57.640 with the Gilded Age. Netflix has its own version with Bridgerton. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.000 Do you guys take credit it for the reinvigoration of 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:07.000 this genre and how do you explain it's enduring appeal? Well, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.600 I think that's possibly easier for me to answer than Julie. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.960 It feels a little less personal. Um. You know, I 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.240 do think that Downton that there's no question in my 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.520 mind that it that it that it started a journey 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:25.040 not only one that that that rediscovered period drama and 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.120 put it front and center, but but also of course 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:34.040 globalized television production. It was Downton was the most successful 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:39.840 non American television show in the US. Um and um. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:44.079 It was the first foreign show that really delivered a 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.880 value globally that was equivalent to a Hollywood TV series. 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.120 So it was in that sense, absolutely groundbreaking. And it 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.600 also caused all of the other you know, I mean, 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.880 by the time we made Downtown I Company, I sold 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.440 the company to Universal, so we were already part of 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:08.360 the Hollywood that the US media landscape. But it caused 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:13.240 all the other competitors to send executives to London. Uh. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.280 You know. Now now it's all the studios for many 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.079 years now, I've had London operations and you know, Netflix 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.559 are very big in the rest of the world, headquartered 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:28.240 out of London, Apple, m Amazon. You know, it really 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.280 opened the door to to to the idea that that 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.079 a foreign show could be as successful globally and could 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.120 make as much money. And that was a simple fact. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.240 And yes, you're I won't repeat all the examples that 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.080 that that you've you've given us, that there are other shows, well, 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.800 actually I will. I mean, yes, Bridgeton, but I think 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:55.960 it's impossible to imagine um Netflix making the Crown without 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.679 the success that Downton Abbey had globally. So I think 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.440 it really did unlock a greatly creately and the creative 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.720 potential that was there anywhere and down to really began 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.320 that journey. I think we were also though, part of 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.840 the movement that had sort of started in America with 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:18.840 the reinvention of serial television with Ian west Wing and 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.920 Madman and you know, Good To all of these shows 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:28.120 where they had taken the multiarch storylines at the endless 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.040 sixteen stories happening in one episode and all the rest 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:36.040 of it, which I'd sort of learned from all and 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:40.400 then gone on with But I think we quite deliberately 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.040 structure that time. It looked incredibly English and it sounded 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.840 incredibly English, but in fact its structure had more in 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:53.600 common with those American shows that had reinvented television than 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.160 indeed with sort of Jewel in the Crown or something 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.720 of twenty or thirty years before. And it was this 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.920 kind of television for people with attention deficit. It's order, 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.320 you know, with sixteen things happening simultaneously. Uh. That I 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:13.000 think invigorated period drama and made it seem modern and 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.160 very watchable and so on. And we were part of 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:22.280 that rebirth really of television. Yeah, you're you're absolutely right. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.600 We had this, remember that first dinner when we when 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.000 we cooked up this idea. It was a strange mix. 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.720 We talked about of all of the English sort of 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:36.800 the classic um English drama of merchant Ivory if you're 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.440 familiar with those songs from from the eighties, the sort 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.839 of you know, the country house and the aristocracy and 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.719 the class and the uh, you know, the sort of 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:50.240 comedy of manners, but with the pace of storytelling of 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.880 West Wing and the west Wing analogy. We used a 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.160 lot because the West Wing is about an entire uh 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.040 you know workplace that is where you've got dozens of 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.719 people who were all doing their thing serving one man 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.200 who is the president. And we saw the connection with 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.480 this new idea that we had that this was going 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:09.280 to be about dozens of people who were all it 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:14.040 serve um Law, Grantham and his family, so and mostly 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.160 in one environment. You know, it is sort of in 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.360 one place. So yes, it was that sort of West 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:23.160 Wing pace of storytelling and focus combined with the lavish 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:29.720 um you know, English charm of merchant ivory. Well, after 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:34.200 producing six seasons of television, you made the jump with 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.000 a to the movies with a first hit two and 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.120 thirty eight million dollars in global box office, which I 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.800 would assume you guys realized was certainly not guaranteed. There's 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:50.199 been plenty of TV shows, successful shows that have failed 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.200 to make the jump to theaters. What was it about 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.200 Doubton that you think enabled it to succeed to the 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:01.600 point where here you are with a second one who's 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:06.120 going to answer that? I think I have an idea 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.000 which is that, although I mean, you're quite right, this 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.240 this was the gamble, This was the question mark was 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.080 would we succeed in making the transition, because plenty of 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:22.400 people haven't in the past. But I think the conception 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.800 of that it was quite cinematic when it was on television, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.240 and it was quite deliberately for that. If you remembered, 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:34.200 the very first shot of the very first episode was 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.680 an enormous traveling shot at where you went through all 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.480 the drawing rooms and libraries, and you walked into the 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.280 hall and you went around. It was all a continuous 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.680 shot that was a very filmic opening, and it was 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.240 rather like the famous one of us at Wells or whatever. 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:56.280 And I think always because the house was a principal character, 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.240 we had a sort of scale of the visuals hide 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:04.160 of the show that was essentially cinematic, and all the 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.560 cinema would do was give us more opportunity to exploit 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.160 the house and be able to show more of it 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.960 and more of the scale, and that, you know, these 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:16.680 aerial shots and all the rest of it. So I 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.920 don't think we act to change. I mean, normally, when 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.480 a television show becomes a film, it's quite difficult because 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.640 it looks different, it is differently conceived, and you don't 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.640 feel you're coming home whereas we didn't have that, we 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.880 were able legitimately to expure not to bring the house 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.440 onto the big screen and get even more out of it. Frankly, 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.640 so I think that made it, made it easier. But 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.080 I mean, you know, it's there's a lot of luck 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.360 in these things. I don't think we should ever forget that. 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.840 I agree about the cinema, that the sort of the 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.240 sense of cinema about that that there was inherent in 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.600 the show, which is unlike a lot of television, particularly 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.080 television at the time. Perhaps not so much now, but 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.400 at the time that there was television and film, and 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.520 I think we we already filled that small screen. So 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.040 the sense of you know, that goes back again to 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.640 that you know, the merchant Ivory sort of them, uh 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.920 you know, starting point. It had that rich full screen 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:16.840 idea too. But I think the other thing is that 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.760 we ended the television show. You know, we quit earlier. 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.320 I think, you know, we this wasn't a television series 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.720 that went on for eight seasons or nine or ten 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.120 and the like shows. You I mean, no, no, nothing 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.160 does now. But but you know, ten twenty years ago, 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.840 it was about really squeezing as much as you possibly 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.680 could about episodic television, and we didn't do that. We 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.640 got out. I I think we feel we got out 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.760 a year or two earlier than we might have done, 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.160 and I think that really did leave the fans thinking 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.160 it wasn't quite over. Um, so there was certainly an 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:59.720 appetite for these characters. Again, you're listening to the strictly 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.200 bi in this podcast. Will be back in a second 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:13.240 with more with Julian Fellows and Gareth Name. We're back 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.080 talking with Julian Fellows and Gareth Named, the architects behind 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.959 Downton Abbey, which is back in theaters this week with 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.399 the sequel titled The New Era. We were just talking 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:28.199 about translating the movie, sorry, translating the intellectual property to 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.400 the movies. The New Era movie is I think releasing 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.240 him to a very different climate than the last one. Uh. 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.879 It's become a very challenged place in theaters for pretty 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.679 much anything that's not a Marvel superhero movie or or 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:48.320 a horror film. Um. Gareth, do you have any apprehension 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:53.920 about how Doubton will resonate this time around? Yes, he's 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.280 of course, he's a challenging times and we were very 0:17:56.320 --> 0:18:00.119 lucky with the first movie, I feel that we we 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:04.840 hit the sweet spot, having been released in September twenty 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:11.040 nine and it's finished its theatrical run globally by the 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:15.560 end of twenty nine, so the timing was very fortunate. UM. 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.760 And really, you know, this second installment of downs and 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.919 has filled the space ever since we started. Julie and 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.440 I worked on the script in the first lockdown of 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.800 spring of twenty twenty and we got the film together 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:33.479 that autumn, and then making the film in one was 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:38.840 very challenging, UM, because of all of the lockdowns and 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.240 the COVID protocols and all of that. So all the 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.520 way through making this and this was a film like 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.919 many other films and TV shows have been made in 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:50.160 this new culture. UM. So yes, we we go out 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.439 into the world in in very different times and where 0:18:55.119 --> 0:19:03.359 the sequencing of UM distribution is different, where where you know, films, uh, 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:05.720 you know come to other platforms much more quickly than 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.080 they did even three years ago, so that there's no 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.359 doubt about the whole landscape is very very different to 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:16.000 what it was just three years ago. And Julian, you know, 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:22.159 it's entirely possible given how unpredictable this COVID marketplace, is 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.280 that your film could have potentially not have released in theaters. 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.320 It could have gone straight to streaming or something like that. 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.840 Would that have been a problem for you. You've talked 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:37.000 about how Doubton is such a distinctly cinematic experience. Are 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.760 you glad that it's going to actually be in cinemas? Oh, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.359 of course I'm glad, yes, because, as you say quite rightly, 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.840 there was a real possibility at one point that it 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.120 wouldn't be an Indeed, I made another film during lockdown 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.840 which was hardly in cinemas and went straight onto a 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.400 platform because you couldn't get anyone to leave the house. So, uh, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.439 there's always that side. But I mean, actually, the truth 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.639 is we have lived through a sort of ten or 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:13.080 twenty period when the nature of release, of showing the 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:19.439 demonstration platforms where where ordinary terrestrial channels now seem like 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:25.199 some sort of Victorian table draping. You know, everything has changed, 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:27.960 and I think you just have to try and keep 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.680 your feet and rock and roll with what's happening. What 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.960 I do think is that you know, there's a big 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.600 audience for this film for when it's sounds other vay 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:40.920 to say that, but but for when it does hit 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.400 a platform, because I was attacked in my hotel this 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.320 morning by a woman at breakfast who said, my husband 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.720 is six and will not go into a cinema. He 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.240 wants to know when it's going to be on a platform. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:21:00.040 And of course I know nothing, you know, but I 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.880 think there are quite a lot of that generation who 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.360 will wait to see it until they feel they can 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.439 do so safely. So we just have to see what 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.040 effect that adds on us. And you know, I'm happy 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.280 and I'm happy that it's in cinemas in Britain already, 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:22.160 and and the feedback we're getting is obviously very nice. 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:24.600 But on the other hand, that's madely from one's friends, 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.240 so that's that's what they would say, wouldn't they. But 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.760 nevertheless it seems quite positive. Well, and I would say, 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:36.520 all you respected for that lady and the elderly husband. 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.959 But you know, we do want we do want fans 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.639 to come back to theaters. You know, um, you know, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.760 America is the home of cinema and that's the you know, 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.600 it's it's the largest market, but it's the rest of 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.199 the markets in the world all put together, and we 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.520 want people to come to theaters to see this because 0:21:55.640 --> 0:22:00.480 it is beloved titles that that like Downtown will bring 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:02.879 people back to theaters. And you know, as much as 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.960 I have you know, huge or and utter respect for 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.920 Marvel and all that it does, we do not want 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.320 movie theaters to become just about Marvel. And we want 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.600 the fans of Downton to come and see it and 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:16.400 for this to be the title that they come back 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:20.040 to theaters and and enjoy, you know, in that that 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:24.639 shared experience. This is a very moving film and a 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:27.520 very funny film. I mean it's the first film was 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.439 very funny. And you know, in these actors, we have 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.800 extremely good comedic actors as well as dramatic actors. And 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.760 Julian's writing. The great genius of it is the mix 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:40.680 of drama, romance, all these things, but you know, a 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:44.080 healthy dose of comedy in the writing as well. And 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.400 this is a very funny film. And I think it's 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:48.800 a you know, Julian and I have seen it a 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.960 few times now with audiences in theaters, and it is 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:56.520 a great audience experience. So with great respect to the 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:58.880 late eighties gentlemen, who's going to watch it at home? 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.399 And I hope you as wife, absolutely love it, and 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:03.680 many others will see it that way as well. For 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:10.000 those off later, you'll off saying that for those of 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:12.000 us who for those of us who love the movie 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:14.480 going experience, you know, I really hope we'll pull the 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.520 stops out and come out and return to theaters like 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.640 we used to. Gareth, you just use the M word Marvel, 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.920 and so I'm going to use the F word franchise. 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.200 Do you see Downton as a franchise in the way 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.960 Marvel or James Bond is considered a franchise? Because I 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:36.959 would think after six seasons of TV, two movies, who 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.080 knows how many more, is it okay to use the 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:43.480 F word? Well, I suppose it might be a kind 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:48.400 of franchise, but the comparisons that you offer up are 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:52.080 so radically different that you know, I mean, not a 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:56.119 superhero in sight and all of that. Um, you know, 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.560 it's a different kind of franchise. If it is, it's 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:05.800 clearly Um Julian created and the characters were realized by 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:11.320 these these fantastic act as something that um that audiences 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:13.320 don't want to let go of. And there's something about 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:16.760 that world and the the you know, it's possibly one 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:20.879 of the most successful depictions of a family over a 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:25.240 long period of time ever um ever enjoyed on screen, actually, 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:28.080 and people connect with that and they don't want to 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:31.400 let it go. So I think we we both feel that, 0:24:31.720 --> 0:24:35.160 you know, we hope there's more, and there's more to do, 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:40.680 and but possibly quite a unique franchise compared to any 0:24:40.720 --> 0:24:44.359 other that you could that you could reference. Yes, I 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:47.280 mean I think so. Do you think it's finished? I mean, 0:24:48.160 --> 0:24:53.320 you know, lives aren't finished until people die, and characters 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:58.800 aren't finished until they die. There's there's there's nothing more 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:01.480