During tomorrow night's episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, Jennifer Saunders will give up some more details on her long-planned Absolutely Fabulous movie. As some press - or maybe, just press-release authors - were at the recording last night, we have The Evening Standard's account to scrape for details ahead of the broadcast. The big point, I think, is that Rebel Wilson has a role in the film. There's a long tradition of putting American stars in British pictures to try and help their export chances - cf. Rhodes of Africa, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Cuban Fury - but I'd have thought Ab Fab would have been able to stand on its own two feet. Maybe not. Saunders reiterated that some of the film would be set on the French Riviera, which again chimes with a long tradition. Sitcoms-turned-movies forever seem to be relocating the action overseas, most recently demonstrated twice by the Inbetweeners films. Another guest on the same show was Matt Lucas and they did a bit where he and Jennifer apparently acted out some material from the script, with Lucas playing Patsy. Until we see it I guess there's no way of knowing if this was a real excerpt or just some goofing off. In any case, I wouldn't be surprised to see Lucas pop up in the film too - Wilson and Lucas are very good friends, and have lived together in real life, not just in Bridesmaids. Absolutely Fabulous is expected to go into production this year. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they rolled cameras in the spring then popped the film out in late August.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
