Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Information

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is a 2016 British comedy film directed by Mandie Fletcher and written by Jennifer Saunders, based on the television show Absolutely Fabulous. The film stars Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks. Principal photography began on 12 October 2015 in the south of France. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2016. It was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures worldwide.

Plot

The ever glamorous and self-indulgent, Edina and Patsy, are now in their 60s and Edina is still running her PR agency that is quickly running out of money and interest. The duo realise that Edina needs a miracle to save her PR company and renew her reputation.

Bubble wakes up a hungover Edina, who has come home from a fashion event. Edina realises that she signs a deal for an autobiography that day. Edina wakes Patsy up and tells her about her book, and how it will be "made into a film because it's about her life", whilst Patsy self-applies Botox. After the company head (Mark Gatiss) rejects Edina's book, because it is lazily written and there's little interest in Edina's PR agency. Whilst Patsy is setting up designer, Huki Muki's, fashion event, Pasty learns that supermodel, Kate Moss is changing her PR, and immediately informs Edina. Patsy phones whilst Edina is at a PR meeting with rival PR, Claudia Bing (Celia Imrie) and during the phone call with Patsy, she accidentally leaves speaker on, leading Claudia to learn of Kate Moss's need for a new PR.

Edina and Patsy go to the fashion event with Edina's Granddaughter, Lola, whilst Edina's daughter and Lola's mother, Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon has a night out with her new boyfriend, Nick (Robert Webb). Edina finds Kate Moss on the balcony that is overlooking the Thames. Edina is aiming speak to Kate, but when Edina notices that Claudia is also there to see Kate, she rushes out to speak to Kate first, but accidentally bumps into her, causing her to fall off the balcony into the Thames.

There is hysteria all through the event, as Kate is presumed dead. The media immediately is at the scene, to report on Kate's disappearance and supposed death. Edina and Patsy are taken into police custody, along with Lola. Saffy arrives to see the three and see if Lola's okay.

The following day, Edina returns home. Patsy arrives, angry, since she has been fired from her job, hence the previous events. The pair make up and go back to the Thames to see if they can find Kate, and use Bubble as a searching device in the water. In doing so, they supposedly kill Bubble as well and flee before the media firestorm gets worse. They pair decide to flee to Cannes. They call upon Lola to use her credit card as a source of money. Edina, Patsy and Lola arrive at Cannes, whilst Saffy is desperately trying to find out about Lola's whereabouts back in London. She searches for Edina's friend and stylist, Christopher (Chris Colfer) to find out about Lola's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, in Cannes, Edina and Patsy call upon help from Patsy's ex-lover and billionaire, Charles. After Charles rejects them, they head to seek help from Edina's mother (June Whitfield), who is celebrating the birthday of Eddie's relative, Violet. During this, they encounter the Richest Woman in the World. In order to attract the Woman to get quick money, Patsy quickly changes her identity, to a male, alter-ego, "Pat" Stone. The following day, Patsy marries the Rich Woman and Edina and Patsy find the wealth they were looking for, and stay to a high-class hotel, with guests such as Dame Joan Collins and Dame Edna Everage.

The following day, Edina and Patsy are seen in public by Emma Bunton who then tells Lulu about her whereabouts. Saffy arrives in Cannes with Nick and immediately heads to the hotel to find Lola. Lola is with Emma who tells Saffy of Edina's whereabouts, even though it is the least of Saffy's concerns. Lulu flies out to Cannes and meets with Bubble, who reveals she just swam off and didn't drown in the Thames. Bubble also reveals that she is also a millionaire and owns a massive, Cannes pavilion because she has had control of Eddie's accounts for years, and has payed herself extra.

Lulu reports Edina and Patsy's whereabouts to the police, since her only desire is to take out Edina for what she has done. The police find Edina and Patsy and chase them through the town, as the duo escapes in a small, three-wheeled, fish-market van. They reach Bubble's pavilion, but the brake of the van breaks and they fall backwards into an infinity pool attached to Bubble's house. Saffy arrives at the scene to find Edina and Patsy slowly sinking into the pool, still inside the van. Edina apologises to Saffy for being a careless mother and wishes to drown in the pool, and finally embrace the fact that she is old and she can't run from justice forever. Saffy tells her that she loves her, and Bubble reveals that Kate Moss didn't drown in the Thames. After finding this out, Edina immediately gets out of the van, realising she isn't guilty.

A montage plays of countries celebrating that Kate Moss is still alive and that Edina is now her new PR. Edina's PR agency is renewed, and Kate is in even more demand now that she has been found. The film finishes with Patsy revealing to her rich wife that she isn't actually a man called "Pat" and is really a woman. Her wife reveals that she is actually a man and the film closes with the series's popular, theme song, This Wheel's On Fire sang by Kylie Minogue.

Cast

Main cast

• Jennifer Saunders as Edina "Eddy" Monsoon
• Joanna Lumley as Patsy Stone
• Julia Sawalha as Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon
• June Whitfield as Mother
• Jane Horrocks as Bubble and Shirley Bassey impersonator
• Chris Colfer as Christopher
• Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness as Lola
• Christopher Ryan as Marshall
• Mo Gaffney as Bo
• Kathy Burke as Magda
• Helen Lederer as Catriona
• Harriet Thorpe as Fleur
• Celia Imrie as Claudia Bing
• Janette Tough as Huki Muki
• Robert Webb as Nick
• Llewella Gideon as Llewella
• Mark Gatiss as Joel

Celebrity cameos

Multiple celebrity cameo appearances in the film were announced over the course of filming. In April 2016, Fox and the BBC confirmed a list of 60 cameos, most of which had not yet been announced, that would be featured in the film. They include:

• Kate Moss as herself
• Emma Bunton as herself
• Lulu as herself
• Joan Collins
• Lily Cole as herself
• Rylan Clark-Neal as Ryan
• Rebel Wilson as a Flight attendant
• Jean Paul Gaultier
• Cara Delevingne
• Jon Hamm
• Stella McCartney as herself
• Gwendoline Christie as herself
• Dawn French as Talk Show Host
• Richard Arnold
• Christopher Biggins
• Ozwald Boateng
• Judith Chalmers
• Alexa Chung
• Abbey Clancy
• Giles Deacon
• Poppy Delevingne
• Alice Dellal
• Alesha Dixon
• Jourdan Dunn
• Beattie Edmondson as Claudia's assistant
• Ella Eyre
• Foxes
• Sadie Frost
• Mark Gatiss as Joel
• Nick Grimshaw
• Orla Guerin as herself
• Jerry Hall
• Jodie Harsh
• Perez Hilton
• Anya Hindmarch
• Pam Hogg
• Kelly Hoppen as herself
• Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries)
• Alex Jones
• La Roux as herself
• Jamie Laing
• Kathy Lette
• Daisy Lowe
• Suzy Menkes
• Nick Mohammed as Caspar
• Graham Norton as himself
• Miquita Oliver
• Jade Parfitt
• Jeremy Paxman
• Sophie Raworth
• Camilla Rutherford
• Brix Smith
• Lara Stone
• Tinie Tempah
• Bruno Tonioli as himself
• Wanda Ventham
• Suki Waterhouse
• Kirsty Wark
• Marcia Warren
• Robert Webb

About 90 drag queens will also appear in the film, including Daniel Lismore, The Infamous BoomBoom, La Voix, Chrissy Darling, Charlie Hides, A Man To Pet, Louie Banks, Victoria Sin, Glamrou Al-Kadhi, Maxi More and Jonbenet Blonde.

Development and production

Saunders wrote and starred in Absolutely Fabulous, a British television sitcom for the BBC which originally ran for three series from 1992 to 1995, with intermittent additional series and specials through 2012. Absolutely Fabulous features the champagne-fueled duo of "international PR guru" Edina Monsoon (Saunders) and "sex-crazed magazine editor" Patsy Stone (Lumley). Additional characters include Edina's overly serious daughter Saffron (Sawalha), her daffy mother (Whitfield) and her even daffier assistant Bubble (Horrocks).

Writing

Deadline.com broke the story in November 2011 that Saunders planned to begin writing a film version of the series in 2012. The movie would begin with Edina and Patsy waking up hungover after a party on an oligarch's yacht, with everyone else gone and the boat somewhere the middle of the ocean. Saunders later said that she hoped to shoot the film on the French Riviera. In March 2012, Saunders confirmed that she was working on the script. She said of the plot:

Calling herself the "worst procrastinator in the world", Saunders said in January 2014:

In April 2014, Saunders again confirmed on BBC Breakfast that she was in the process of writing the film. In April 2015, Saunders explained her delay with the script, saying "I think that's why I didn't do it for a while ... I thought, 'Wouldn't it be awful if it was awful.'" She then quipped, "but we're all so old, and Joanna [Lumley] said to me, 'Do it before we die!' We're all on the brink." Saunders also noted, "[The film] involves all the main characters and virtually everyone that's ever been in the series"?all those characters". Lumley confirmed in July 2015 that the film's script was finished and that production would begin in October. She said of the project, "We are all there, the same old gang ... It is going to be ravishingly funny! Very gorgeous ... and completely fabulous!"

Production and filming

In August 2015, Deadline.com reported that "all of the original main cast" were confirmed, with Fox Searchlight Pictures in negotiations to co-finance and co-produce the film with BBC Films, and to handle worldwide distribution. It was also announced that Mandie Fletcher would direct, with Jon Plowman and Damian Jones as producers and Saunders, French and Maureen Vincent as executive producers. Deadline.com later reported that Christine Langan, Steve Milne, Christian Eisenbeiss and Nichola Martin were also executive producing, with DanTram Nguyen, Vice President of Production and Katie Goodson-Thomas, Director of Production overseeing the project for Fox .

Principal photography on the film began on 12 October 2015 in south of France. The BBC and Fox Searchlight subsequently released a promotional image of Saunders and Lumley in character on a yacht. Along with Sawalha, Whitfield and Horrocks, Kathy Burke was confirmed to be reprising her role as Magda, and Kate Moss, Emma Bunton and Lulu would appear in guest roles as themselves, as they had in the TV series. The cameo appearances of Harry Styles, Kelly Hoppen and Kim Kardashian were also announced as filming began. Multiple other celebrity cameos were announced during production, culminating with a 60-name list released in April 2016.

Deadline.com's Ali Jaafar wrote of the film's plot in October 2015:

Controversy

In December 2015, the film sparked controversy and accusations of racism when it was announced that Caucasian comedian Janette Tough would be playing a Japanese character named Huki Muki. Korean American comedian Margaret Cho accused Ab Fab: The Movie of "yellowface"?, which she described as "when white people portray Asian people. And unfortunately it"?s happening in this film."

Soundtrack

Australian singer Kylie Minogue recorded and released a promotional single, "This Wheel's on Fire", as the official theme song for the film. This new version of the track, produced by Richard Stannard and Ash Howes, was released on June 10, 2016. The soundtrack, which will also include songs from Paloma Faith (whose "Ready for the Good Life" appears in the film's trailer), La Roux, Jason Derulo, Nancy Sinatra, Santigold and others, will be released on July 22, 2016 via Rhino Records.

Release

The film was released in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2016.

Reception

Critical response

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 81%, based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".