Downton Abbey is returning as a movie and is being filmed in September

The Crawleys will finally be hitting the big screen!

A Downton Abbey movie is finally in the works!

Julian Fellowes, creator of our favourite Sunday night guilty pleasure Downton Abbey, has finally confirmed he has started work on a film version of the TV show.

After months of rumours and confusion over the full cast's availability, a budget has now been set and filming is set to begin in September. The final hurdle is now to get everything in place to start shooting.

Julian Fellowes started writing the film script a while ago, just in case the turnaround ended up being faster than he anticipated.

"I don’t want to be caught out if the producers suddenly say yes and then it’s all go," he said.

The movie will definitely star Brendan Coyle, Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Brown Findlay, but sadly we will be saying goodbye to the eternally glorious Maggie Smith.

The popular British drama series, centred around the lives of the Crawley family and their servants, spanned for 13 years in six series, ending at Christmas time in 2015. In that time, it earned an unbelievable 57 awards, and 210 nominations!

The TV series starred Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, Elizabeth McGovern as his wife Cora, Their three daughters were played by Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael and Jessica Brown Findlay. Dame Maggie Smith played Robert's mother Violet.

Downton Abbey started in 1912 when the Titanic sank, and ended in 1925 when Britain returned to the gold standard.

And in real time, the series ended on 8th November 2015 – so the movie has been a very long time coming for die-hard Downton fans!