Breeding and talent? Quite

The rise and rise of Julian Fellowes, after he spent 25 years languishing in semiobscurity, is one of the British film industry’s most extraordinary stories.

Best known as a character actor specializing in upper-class, slightly silly characters (he can be seen as Lord Kilwillie on BBC America’s “Monarch of the Glen”), Fellowes pulled off the astonishing feat of winning an Oscar for his first produced feature film script, “Gosford Park” (2001). Now Fellowes, 54, is directing his first film, “A Way Through the Woods.” He wrote the script, adapting it from the 1951 novel by English author Nigel Balchin. It stars Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett, and it is certain to be more than another forgettable low-budget British film. Fox Searchlight will distribute it worldwide.

Lounging in his director’s trailer last week in this idyllic village some 40 miles northwest of London, where scenes were being shot in an old vicarage, Fellowes mused on his ascendance: “You think ‘if this is happening to me, it can’t be that extraordinary, because I’m not an extraordinary person.’ But I have had an extraordinary couple of years.”

Indeed he has, and they will not stop with “A Way Through the Woods.” Since his Oscar win, Fellowes has been inundated with offers. He has written a new version of the classic 19th century English novel “Vanity Fair”; it is filming with Mira Nair directing and Reese Witherspoon starring as its heroine, Becky Sharp. And Fellowes’ script “Piccadilly Jim,” which he adapted from a P.G. Wodehouse story, starts shooting next month, starring Sam Rockwell.

He has also written the book for the stage version of “Mary Poppins,” co-produced in a unique high-profile arrangement by Disney and British impresario Cameron Mackintosh. It opens in London’s West End in 2004 and already promises to be one of the major musical events of next year.

“I went back to the original book,” he explained. “There’s a lot of the (1964) film in the show, but the narrative and dialogue is much closer to the book. Certain characters, like Miss Andrew, the terrible governess from Mr. Banks’ past, is quite a figure in the show and wasn’t in the film at all. It was a wonderful film, I adored it, and 100 million people can’t be wrong. But when you do these stage shows, if all you do is deliver the film on stage, that’s rather disappointing. What I hope we’ve managed to do is give people their favorite songs, but give them something new too.”

Fellowes has also written a novel, which will be published in Britain in April. “It’s called ‘Snobs,’ and it’s about modern-day toffs. It’s set in upper-class England in 2003, a world most people don’t know even exists. It’s slightly caustic, and I think I’m in for some [criticism], actually. But every now and then you’ve got to say what you think.”

He knows his Oscar win has given him instant cachet in the industry. “As the song says, what a difference a day makes,” he said.

Fellowes, who speaks in mellifluous, aristocratic tones (think Hugh Grant, but a few degrees more posh), is as blue-blooded as many of the characters he has played. He grew up among Britain’s upper classes; his wife, Emma Kitchener, is lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent, whose husband is a cousin of the Queen.

Film director, no baseball cap

As such, Fellowes cuts an unusual figure as a film director. Not for him the almost obligatory uniform of baseball cap, jeans and sneakers. On set he wore a tweed jacket, blue-and-white striped shirt with a red tie, corduroy trousers and stout shoes. Here in Turville, he could have passed for the lord of the manor. “I think I was expected to dress differently, but I thought no, this is who I am,” he explained cheerfully. But who he is has served him well in the past, particularly on “Gosford Park.” Director Robert Altman wanted to make a film about a murder mystery set in an English stately home, and Fellowes was one of the few screenwriters in England intimate with upstairs-downstairs etiquette. During shooting he was constantly at Altman’s side, advising on everything from table settings to the deployment of maids.

“A Way Through the Woods” is about Anne and James (Watson and Wilkinson), an affluent couple with a house in a rural village. They are apparently happy, but it turns out she is having an affair with the son (Everett) of the local aristocratic landowner. When a tragic accident occurs in their village, loyalties among the trio are severely strained.

“I was interested in writing a ‘moral maze’ movie,” Fellowes explained. “You’re never quite sure whose side you’re on. The good people behave badly, and someone you thought you disliked you might like in the end. I have that European predilection for films where you change your mind about the characters. I feel this is really a French film, only it’s in English. But I hope it’s a two-hankie film too.”

The prospects look good, for Fellowes seems to have taken easily to directing. “He’s good and very cool,” Wilkinson said. “You’d have thought as a first-time director with his own script he’d be stressed beyond belief. But he’s totally calm.”

Fellowes wrote “A Way Through the Woods” some seven years ago, long before “Gosford Park.” He offered Wilkinson (whom he knew as a fellow actor) the role of James back then. But it was tough to get the film financed; would-be backers liked the script but balked because Fellowes, then a little-known actor, was attached as a director. “Then I won the Oscar, and things changed,” Fellowes recalled. “Ha-ha!”

He happily concedes that his emergence owes much to being in the right place at the right time. “Ah, these circuitous routes of fate,” he said, smiling. “So much is luck. To be around at that moment when it amused this international filmmaker to make this film about the English upper classes -- how often does that happen? Once in a blue moon.” Fellowes observed, half-jokingly: “There’s a notion that anything I write never goes below the rank of viscount. But the characters in this film are self-made, upper-middle class, stockbroker-belt people. The truth is, plenty of people live this life -- far more than unemployed steelworkers. But they’re never touched by contemporary drama. In period drama, everyone’s upper class. In modern drama, no one is. I don’t understand that. It’s as if nothing that happened to people like this could be interesting. So in this film, we have a slight card of novelty. These people who have cleaners and houses both in London and the country haven’t been touched by drama since the 1960s. This is Joseph Losey territory,” referring to the blacklisted American director respected for his British films such as “The Servant,” “The Accident” and “The Go-Between.”

Because Fellowes is so recognizably posh and does not speak English with a blue-collar accent, he feels he was overlooked as an actor and was denied an opportunity to display his talents. Growing up in the 1960s, “authentic” actors with a working-class background, like Albert Finney, Michael Caine and Terence Stamp were all the rage. “If I’d been doing this in the ‘50s I’d have been this trainee Robert Morley or Peter Ustinov, and everything would have been fine,” Fellowes reflected. “But for many years I felt I was passed over, sometimes for people who were less talented. And I resented it. There was an assumption if you came from my background you couldn’t have much to say.”

Still, he now feels his sudden prominence has arrived at a good time: “The nice thing about the Oscar was that it happened when I was 52, and a lot of people identified with the fact it came 10 years after you’ve given up hope. Lots of people feel they’ve never been given a chance, and they’re right. I’ve felt like a spokesman for neglected ability.”