David Yates, director of the last four “Harry Potter” movies, announced that he is working with the BBC to develop a “Doctor Who” feature film.
Yates and Jane Tranter, BBC’s VP of programming and production, expect to take several years to develop the right story to bring The Doctor to the theater screens.
He also made it clear that the film would not follow from or be based on the current TV series in any way, saying “Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch.”
This combination could bode well for a new big screen incarnation of The Doctor, since Tranter was involved with the series reboot in 2005, and Yates preceded his successful “Harry Potter” outings directing several BBC TV projects, including the acclaimed “State of Play”.
I don’t know what to think about this. It could be cool as long as it has no impact on the tv series and it’s 50 years of history. I don’t want to see the series end because a film made a ton of money.
I always thought a film about the life of the first Doctor when he was younger would be interesting. Who knows how many companions he had, how many adventures? Clearly he had a lot of history before the series began. It would probably be best to do it in a way that didn’t reveal too many personal details as to keep some of the mystery though. Just a thought.
Is this a reboot on the big screen then? I agree with Morgothik that I wouldn’t want to see the current series end because of a successful movie. Just my opinion but I think you can get more out of a tv series than movies anyway…even if they have sequels the stories are confined to that 2 (or so) hour format. Not always easy to do everything you want done in that amount of time.
It’s not the first time theatrical motion pictures have been done while the series has been on the air … Peter Cushing had three movies in development, and two of those hit the big screen, where he played “Dr. Who” an Earthling who created his own time machine. Not in the same continuity as the series, but similar enough to keep the fans’ interest.
I’m for it. Can I buy my ticket now?