How the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie came together: Passion, patience and perfect timing

LA Times

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Some interesting quotes:

"For Julian Fellowes, the show’s creator who also wrote the film, a movie wasn’t necessarily a sure thing. He’d written the finale as a concrete (and happy) ending, and there needed to be a reason to return. Fellowes, who notes that the film “crept up” on him, spent months writing the script and then sending it out to the producers for notes.

He wanted to ensure that each character had something to do within the two-hour run time and that every storyline ultimately felt resolved. He determined that the main plot would center around King George V and Queen Mary paying a visit to Downton Abbey, an event that could likely have happened at the time.

“I was looking for a storyline that affected everyone,” Fellowes says. “We used to do that in the Christmas specials as well, where they went to Scotland — or wherever — and it would affect the servants as much as it would affect the family. Everyone is involved in this single event and all of their stories are coming off from this single event like branches from a trunk. I wanted something that was exciting-slash-disrupting for both the family and the servants and the local village.”"

"Besides the abridged run time, there wasn’t much difference in making a film versus making the TV series, particularly as much of the same crew returned. Highclere Castle, in Hampshire, remains the primary set, with the kitchens and servants’ quarters rebuilt on a soundstage. The real-life villages of Bampton and Laycock give a more expansive look at the village around Downton Abbey, slightly expanding the world. The budget was also higher, which means there are more ambitious sequences, like a royal parade, and the producers brought in Ben Smithard (“Blinded by the Light”) as cinematographer.

“When you’re sitting in a theater you have such a different sense of immersion in the event,” says director Michael Engler, who also helmed the series finale. “You want to take advantage of that as much as you can. When you see the scale of it you want to feel like it earns that. It needed to be on a bigger screen with better sound because the story is bigger and grander.”

Engler and Smithard also display Highclere Castle in new ways for the film, using helicopter and drone shots that weren’t available for the small screen."