While promoting the DVD/Blu-ray release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 last month director David Yates announced he would be teaming up with the BBC to bring Doctor Who to the big screen. At the time he said though “Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, we have to put that aside and start from scratch”. Basically saying the movie will be separate from the current TV show.

Well Steven Moffat, head writer and executive producer of the BBC series, has insisted that the planned movie adaptation will not be a reboot and would star whoever plays the Doctor on the TV show (whether Matt Smith or the next Doctor).

Moffat tweeted:

To clarify: any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and certainly NOT be a Hollywood reboot.

Movie thing: David Yates, great director, was speaking off the cuff, on a red carpet. You’ve seen the rubbish I talk when I’m cornered.

Yates could have been speaking “off the cuff” like Moffat suggested, but I can’t see why Yates would suggest starting from scratch if that wasn’t being discussed or the intention. Following Yates’ announcement last month Moffat didn’t seem too keen on the idea, and had a little dig on Twitter about how they’re making the movie public when it’s still in the early stages.

Announcing my personal moonshot, starting from scratch. No money, no plan, no help from NASA. But I know where the moon is – I’ve seen it.

It can’t be fun working on the Doctor Who TV show (which will return later next year) knowing someone has plans to do their own movie version in a couple of years, ignoring yours. These conflicting reports from Moffat/Yates could suggest there’s an internal struggle going on at the BBC (TV show people vs. movie people) regarding the direction of the movie.

Still, earlier this week Yates told MTV “it’s a long journey and we’re going to take our time with it”, so they’ve got plenty of time to decide whether it’ll be a continuation of the TV show or not.

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Doctor Who is probably Britain’s biggest TV show (apart from those Simon Cowell makes) and is broadcast weekly in 42 countries around the world, so with such a large fan base it wouldn’t be shock to learn that BBC Film are quietly working on a movie version of the show. Unlike Lost and other shows that could potentially spawn a movie, Doctor Who episodes have no strict links between them, and the TV specials being shown throughout this year prove that the Doctor can appear just about anywhere, which makes a movie version more viable.

Buried at the bottom of a Doctor Who related BBC article we get:

David Tennant will firstly appear in three specials, starting with The Waters of Mars in November.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who may be heading for the big screen after a spokeswoman for BBC Films confirmed that “a script is in development”.

BBC entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba said there were no guarantees a film would be made and that, if the project went into full production, a release would be a long time away.

So if it eventually happens David Tennant probably won’t be the Doctor, instead it may be Matt Smith who will take over the role in 2010.

Steven Moffat, who co-wrote The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn for Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, will be taking over Russell T Davies’ job as head writer and executive produce for future series, so he would be a great candidate to write the script for the movie.

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26 year old Matt Smith has been named as the next Dr. Who. The ‘big reveal’ took place during a Dr. Who special on BBC 1, and the result was also broadcast live on big screens in cities around the UK (it’s kind of a big deal as the show is one of the most watched shows in Britain).

Matt Smith will be the youngest doctor in the history of the show, and will be first seen on screen in 2010, after David Tennant has completed 4 TV movie specials throughout 2009.

Dr. Who is now broadcast in over 42 countries around the world after the BBC brought it back to life in 2005. Series 5 will be written by Steven Moffat, who pulled out of writing Tintin for Steven Spielberg so he could work on the show.

“The Doctor is a very special part, and it takes a very special actor to play him. You need to be old and young at the same time, a boffin and an action hero, a cheeky schoolboy and the wise old man of the universe. As soon as Matt walked through the door, and blew us away with a bold and brand new take on the Time Lord, we knew we had our man.”

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