Doctor Who feature film in development

[Kamandi]

New movie in 2 or 3 years from the director of Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows 1&2 .

Rebooted/self-contained continuity. BOOO!!!!

Yates to direct bigscreen 'Doctor Who'

'Potter' helmer, BBC working on pic of sci-fi TV series

By Adam Dawtrey

"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." (I believe that was called Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - Kamandi)

...


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. (You should also fill it with Americans - Kamandi)



Full Story: link

 

[KillKen]

Uggh .

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

I can understand why they feel the need to start fresh, 50 years of continuity is a lot of baggage to bring to a feature film about a character that most people outside of the UK know little about. However, I think a brief prologue at the beginning of the film explaining how the Doctor regenerates and showing a few of the most prolific baddies would be more than enough to clue people in. Still, I'm willing to give it a chance.

 

[William Shatners Toupee]

I fear it! (shudder) But live in hope it might still be good in its own continuity.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Sounds cool. I like to think Doctor Who fans are intellectual enough to keep the stories seperate and not feel the need to tie every bit of information together to fullfill their OCD driven minds...maybe not.

 

[Kamandi]

Don't Reboot. They could tell the beginning, which is something we've never seen before. But if they do that they need to include his granddaughter Susan.

 

[Kabukiman]

I was totally on board until I realized this is going to be Dr. Who and the Daleks 2: Electric Boogaloo.

 

[N2k-swb]

Don't Reboot. They could tell the beginning, which is something we've never seen before. But if they do that they need to include his granddaughter Susan.

There is no need for a reboot, so many stand alone storys to tell, if they do an origin then the whole reason the show works in the first place is lost, not exactly 'Doctor Who' if you know who the doctor is! and they cant skip that if they want outside audiences to come in and get the plot of the movie, the thing about the 2005 series working was the whole classic show you could run back to if things got too confusing.

Good luck to them if they want to give it a go but its one i wont go to see, rather spend £££ on something original.

 

[Kamandi]

I expect next season Moffat will sketch out some type of early back-story. The season finale teased "Doctor who? Doctor who?" They can't just walk away from that.

Other films that follow TV shows (such as the Trek movies) expected the audience to understand there was a series before. Part of what makes Doctor Who special is that it's been around since '63. Hollywood can't distill that into two hours.

 

[arthurian2]

I very much doubt that the BBC will allow a film to step too far away from the original because basically it's one of they're biggest earners. Merchandising from Dr Who is BBC Enterprises most successful money makers and that includes the 'original' series. If, and that's a very big 'if', the film was a rebooted version they would have to wave goodbye to all that potential marketing of the early series and the present one. Moffat has already made it quite clear that if a film ever gets off the ground it will have to feature TV Dr and sit along side the TV series. If this actually happens it will an interesting format as all films up to now that have been remakes of old series have bee made as stand alone movies