Focus Distribution Chief Promises New ‘Downton’ Will Deliver Older Auds, Touts ‘Armageddon Time,’ ‘Tár,’ ‘Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris – CinemaCon
deadline.com“We have our own superheroes here at Focus Feature and they are going to bring older filmgoers back to your movie theaters,” Lisa Bunnell, Focus Features distribution chief, promised thousands of cinema execs at the Universal presentation today.“They want to see something new.
They come,” she said, welcoming the cast of Downton Abbey: A New Era via video offering brief, happy remarks and thanks to the CinemaCon crowd that fans in North America would soon be experiencing the film.The highly-anticipated sequel based on the wildly popular series is set to open in North America on May 20.
It’s out in the U.K. this week. Deadline review here.Focus presented some footage from the motion picture event — there’s been a trailer out for some time.
A movie is going to be shot at the historic family estate; Tom is getting married; and some of the family journey to the South of France after Maggie Smith’s Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, inherits a stunning villa under mysterious circumstances.Written and co-produced by creator Julian Fellowes and directed by Simon Curtis, the sequel opens in 1928, with the wedding of Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton).Older demos have remained elusive even as the pandemic wanes and a lot is hanging on the success of Downton in bringing them back.Bunnell also showcased James Gray’s , set to world premiere in competition at Cannes.
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