Julian Fellowes

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes is to adapt Anthony Trollope's novel Doctor Thorne as a three-part drama, which is to start filming later this year, ITV announced.

"As a lifetime devotee of Trollope, my own favorite among the great 19th century English novelists and certainly the strongest influence over my work that I am conscious of, it is tremendously exciting and satisfying to know that my adaptation of one of his best-loved novels is coming to ITV," Fellowes said in a statement. "I could not be more delighted."

No casting has been announced yet. The program will follow the title character, who lives with his beautiful niece, Mary, "a girl blessed with every gift except money," a synopsis said.

"Mary Thorne has grown up alongside the Gresham sisters -- Augusta, Beatrice and Alexandrina and their handsome brother Frank -- whose home is the great house and estate at Greshamsbury Park. When the terrifying Lady Arabella Gresham discovers that her darling son, Frank, has fallen in love with Dr. Thorne's penniless niece, she is horrified."