'Downton' Star Elizabeth McGovern Returns to PBS

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From Town & Country

Just over a year after we bid farewell to the Crawley family, Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern is heading back to Masterpiece on PBS in Julian Fellowes's latest project, a feature film called The Chaperone, based on Laura Moriarty's best-selling novel of the same name.

According to the network, "The Chaperone takes place against the backdrop of the tumultuous times of the early 1920s. A Kansas woman (McGovern) is forever changed when she chaperones a beautiful and talented 15-year-old dancer named Louise Brooks (Julia Goldani Telles, The Affair) to New York for the summer. One of them is eager to fulfill her destiny of dance and movie stardom; the other is on a mission to unearth the mysteries of her past."

“It feels so right to reunite Julian Fellowes, Elizabeth McGovern, and director Michael Engler for our first feature film," said Masterpiece Executive Producer Rebecca Eaton of the project. "Like Downton Abbey, The Chaperone is a beautifully told period drama set in a changing world, but now the setting is New York City.”

The film will first run in theaters, before heading to PBS. Arclight Films, who is financing the movie, will reportedly present the film to distributors in Cannes this month.

Another 1920s-era period drama from Fellowes? It sounds right up our alley - we only hope it won't distract him from that rumored Downton Abbey movie.

You Might Also Like