We're no closer to a 'Downton Abbey' movie than we were a year ago, so slow your roll, internet

In today's installment of "old news the internet is suddenly treating like it's new," another producer has reiterated that a Downton Abbey movie is in the works.

This would be much more remarkable if everyone from the show's creator to its cast hadn't been promising a Downton Abbey movie ever since the series left the air.

The movie has been newly "confirmed" since January 2016/March 2016/May 2016/July 2016/August 2016/September 2016/January 2017/March 2017/May 2017 -- at least if you have a flexible definition of "confirmed," but as far as we can tell, not much has progressed since then. There is supposedly a draft of the script, which was "confirmed" by the cast last October, but a rep for NBCUniversal International Studios reiterated to Mashable that the project is still in the development stage, with no updates to report.

The latest round of breathless speculation comes courtesy of the Associated Press, who likewise "confirmed" what we already know with Michael Edelstein, the president of NBCUniversal International Studios, at the Singapore opening for Downton Abbey: The Exhibition.

“There’s a movie in the works. It’s been in the works for some time,” Edelstein told the AP (glad someone remembers). "We are working on getting the script right and then we’ve got to figure out how to get the [cast] together. Because as you know, people go on and do other things. But we’re hopeful to make a movie sometime next year."

But being "hopeful" about getting a movie into production is not the same as an official greenlight for a project, nor does a vague ambition to film sometime in 2018 count as a concrete start date. As Edelstein noted, they don't yet have a finalized script. Even more importantly, the AP asked some of the actors at the event whether they had deals in place, and none of them knew anything about it.

“Oh, well, you’ve got confirmation before us. We have no idea if that’s happening,” said Sophie McShera, who played Daisy Mason. “But we would all love to be part of the film if it was to happen, for sure.”

Lady Edith herself, Laura Carmichael, expressed similar sentiments: “Well, tell my agent, because we’re still waiting to know. We’re hoping that will happen soon.”

Even the show's creator, Julian Fellowes, expressed that contagious feeling of "hope," not certainty. “I think we’ve got a film in us. I hope it happens,” he said.

Sounds ... hopeful.

So slow your roll, internet -- we're still a long way from reuniting with the Crawleys on the big screen; and besides, dearly departed Matthew already beat them to it.