BBC Responds to Doctor Who Movie

The big news that a Doctor Who movie is in the works

came as a bit of a shocker and quickly spread the internet like wildfire when the story broke yesterday. It was picked up by a vast number of reputable sites, including BBC News.

For clarity, let’s run through what Variety originally reported:

• BBC Worldwide are developing the film
• Director David Yates (Harry Potter) is working on it with BBC’s Jane Tranter
• They are looking for writers both in the UK and US
• It will be around 2-3 years before it’s ready for release
• The movie will “start from scratch” and not be a continuation of the TV series
• Yates says Doctor Who will need “radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena”
• The movie will still retain the show’s “British sensibility”

The BBC have since responded to the news and the official line is: “A feature film remains in development with BBC Worldwide Productions in Los Angeles. But, as of yet there is no script, cast or production crew in place.”

So there are plans for a Doctor Who movie, but it is still in the very early stages, meaning we will not see it for a long time yet. We suspect that Yates has actually been in discussions and he simply let the cat out of the bag a little prematurely here. One thing is clear, there’s definitely more to it than just the “same old rumour.”

But a lot can happen in three years, so who knows what form the final movie will take? Or if the film will even get out of the development stage, or if Yates will still even be attached to the project. The bottom line is, it’s far too early to be worrying about anything.