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'Downton Abbey' team reunites for movie 'The Chaperone'

By Karen Butler
Elizabeth McGovern arrives for the the 23rd annual SAG Awards on January 29. McGovern has signed on to star in the film "The Chaperone." File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
1 of 2 | Elizabeth McGovern arrives for the the 23rd annual SAG Awards on January 29. McGovern has signed on to star in the film "The Chaperone." File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

May 17 (UPI) -- Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, actress Elizabeth McGovern and director Michael Engler are reuniting to bring Laura Moriarty's novel The Chaperone to the big screen.

Set in the early 1920s, the film will air on PBS stations after its initial, theatrical run. It follows a Kansas woman as she looks after a beautiful and talented, 15-year-old dancer, played by Julia Goldani Telles, in New York for the summer.

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"It feels so right to reunite Julian Fellowes, Elizabeth McGovern, and director Michael Engler for our first feature film. Like Downton Abbey, The Chaperone is a beautifully told period drama set in a changing world, but now the setting is New York City," Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton said at the PBS annual meeting in San Diego.

"I am absolutely delighted to be working with Masterpiece and Elizabeth McGovern on The Chaperone, based on Laura Moriarty's novel, which is captivating and beguiling and resonant in so many ways," Fellowes added. 

"It is a thrill and an honor to be working with Masterpiece and Julian again on his beautiful adaptation of The Chaperone, and to be in the expert hands of director Michael Engler," remarked McGovern. 

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The British soap opera Downton Abbey, which also took place around the turn of the last century, ran on PBS for six seasons 2010-15.

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