ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE Gets Underway, Releases First Photo

After years of development, the big screen adaption of the cult BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous has finally started shooting. To note the event, Fox Searchlight Pictures and BBC Films have released the first picture from the film showing Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley as long past their prime partiers Edina and Patsy living it up on a yacht.

The original TV series premiered on the BBC in 1992, running for a totla of six season and a number of one-off specials over twenty years. Also returning for the film are series regulars Julia Sawalha as Saffy, Jane Horrocks as Bubble and June Whitfield as Mother. Series director Mandie Fletcher is behind the camera for the big screen version.

The press release that accompanied the picture describes the plot thusly –

Edina and Patsy are still living the high life: shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London’s trendiest hotspots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber-fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm, and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent, and live a life of luxury forever.

The shoot is scheduled for seven weeks and will take the production to both the UK and the south of France.

No release date has been set.