LONDON — Fox Searchlight Pictures and BBC Films have released the first image from comedy “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie,” which has started to shoot in the U.K. and the South of France for seven weeks. The film will be released next year.

The film reunites Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley as Edina and Patsy, along with the rest of the original cast, which includes Julia Sawalha as Saffy, Jane Horrocks as Bubble and June Whitfield as Mother.

In the movie, which is adapted from the BBC TV series, Edina and Patsy are still living the high life: shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London’s trendiest hotspots. Blamed for a major incident at an uber-fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm, and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent, and live a life of luxury forever.

The behind-the-camera team includes Mandie Fletcher (“Blackadder,” “Absolutely Fabulous”), directing from a script by Saunders, producers Jon Plowman (“Absolutely Fabulous,” “The Vicar of Dibley”) and Damian Jones (“The Iron Lady,” “Belle,” “Dad’s Army”). Steve Milne, Christian Eisenbeiss, Christine Langan, Nichola Martin, Saunders, French and Maureen Vincent are serving as executive producers.

DanTram Nguyen, VP of production, and Katie Goodson-Thomas, director of production, will oversee the project for Fox Searchlight.