Online sources are indicating that a Doctor Who movie is in the works and is to be directed by David Yates, who previously directed the latter four Harry Potter films, read on for more details:
Harry Potter director David Yates is teaming up with the BBC to turn
its iconic sci-fi TV series Doctor Who into a bigscreen franchise.
Yates, who directed the last four Potter films, told Daily Variety
that he is about to start work on developing a Doctor Who movie with
Jane Tranter, head of L.A.-based BBC Worldwide Prods.
"We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three
years to get it right," he said. "It needs quite a radical
transformation to take it into the bigger arena."
Doctor Who follows the adventures across space and time of a
super-intelligent alien in human form, who battles a variety of cosmic
bad guys aided by plucky human companions.
"The notion of the time-travelling Time Lord is such a strong
one, because you can express story and drama in any dimension or time,"
Yates said.
The series ran from 1963 to 1989, and then was successfully
rebooted in 2005 by writer Russell T. Davies and subsequently by Steven
Moffat (The Adventures of Tintin). Tranter oversaw the revival when
she was the BBC's drama topper in London.
Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the 11th incarnation of the
Doctor, is now one of the pubcaster's most lucrative global TV
franchises. The series airs Stateside on BBC America.
Yates made clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on
from the current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach
to the material.
"Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own
transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and
start from scratch," he said.
Yates and Tranter are looking for writers on both sides of the Atlantic. "We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve
Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility
perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too," he explained.
There are two previous films, based on the TV series: Doctor Who
and the Daleks (1965) and Doctor Who: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150
A.D. (1966), both starring Peter Cushing.
The BBC has since made a few unsuccessful attempts to develop a Doctor Who feature, and shot a one-off telepic in 1996 at a time when
the TV series was dormant.
But the combination of Yates and Tranter means this is the most
high-powered effort to date to launch Doctor Who onto the bigscreen.
Before directing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and both parts of Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows, Yates worked with Tranter on several BBC TV
series, including The Way We Live Now and State of Play.
