Gosford Park

Gosford Park is a 2001 British mystery film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Eileen Atkins, Alan Bates, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clive Owen, Emily Watson, Charles Dance, and Michael Gambon. The story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at Gosford Park, an English country house. A murder occurs after a dinner party and the film goes on to present the subsequent investigation into it from the servants' and guests' perspectives.



Development on Gosford Park began in 1999, when Bob Balaban came to Altman and asked if they could develop a film together. Altman suggested a whodunitand asked Fellowes to write the script. The film went into production in March 2001 and began filming at Shepperton Studios with a production budget of $19.8 million. Gosford Park premiered on 7 November 2001 at the London Film Festival. It received a limited release across cinemas in the United States in December 2001, before being widely released in January 2002 by USA Films. It was released in February 2002 in the United Kingdom.

The film was successful at the box office, grossing over $87 million in cinemas worldwide, making it Altman's second most successful film after MASH. It received multiple awards and nominations, including seven Academy Award nominations and nine British Academy Film Awards nominations.

The TV series Downton Abbey was originally planned as a spin-off of Gosford Park, but instead was developed as a stand-alone property inspired by the film, set decades earlier.[3]




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosford_Park