At the beginning of the year, Jennifer Saunders had alleged that the Absolutely Fabulous movie — based on her famed 90s TV show about alcoholic fashionistas — would be made by the end of 2015, as she’d already completed the script. After that, news had begun trickling out about the project, making it seem like the goal would very likely be achieved. Deadline now reports that Fox Searchlight is in talks to co-produce and co-finance the film with BBC; they’d also be handling distribution rights.
Mandie Fletcher, who was a frequent director of the series, is returning to direct the film, which has Jon Plowman and Damian Jones set as producers and Saunders, Dawn French (Saunders’ long-time comedy partner, of the hilarious French and Saunders) and Maureen Vincent as executive producers. Allegedly, one of the reasons Saunders had set the end-of-2015 completion date was due to a bet between her and French for approximately $15,000 over whether she could produce it by then.
Last year, Saunders had said, before she’d even gotten the storyline together, “I want to cast everyone who has ever been in the show in it.” It’s very nearly seeming like that’ll be the case — at least among key players — with Deadline stating that “all of the original main cast is confirmed.” So yes, as confirmed last month, Joanna Lumley is definitely in as Patsy, Julia Sawalha will reprise her role as Edina’s daughter, Saffron Monsoon, and Jane Horrocks will return as Bubble, whose best outfits can (and really should) be viewed here. Deadline also notes that it’s “expected” to feature many celebrity cameos.
The film goes into production on October 12 in London.