David Yates is Still Planning his DOCTOR WHO Movie

Movie David Yates by Joey Paur

A few months ago it was reported that Harry Potter director David Yates was planning to develop a big screen adaptation of of the classic sci-fi BBC series Doctor Who. Yates envisions the film as a complete reboot, with a recast Doctor. Shortly after this was announced the shows current showrunner Steven Moffat said that "any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and certainly NOT be a Hollywood reboot." I guess that's what Moffat would like to see, but it doesn't look like his vision is going to happen. Yates has once again confirmed after Moffat's statement that he is definitely making his Doctor Who movie, but not for a very long time. Here's what he had to say:

Yes, I'm definitely doing a Doctor Who movie. But I think where everyone got confused was that we're not making it for five years, or six years—it's a very slow development. I've got projects backed up between now and about 2015, and it's something I'm very passionate and excited about.

Stephen's a genius. I love his work, I think he's incredibly clever. I love what he's done with Doctor Who, love his Sherlock Holmes. He's such a gifted man. But this is something that's a very slow burn and I'm hoping to sit down with him at some point and have a chat. It's just something that we've been talking about for a little while.

So it sounds like eventually Yates and Moffat will be on the same page about this movie and star collaborating on it together. I think it's very possible that five or six years down the line the movie could end up being connected to the series. So much can happen between now and then. Yates continues saying 

That's all to be discussed. Because it's five or six years from now. It's weird because ... what will the series be like in five or six years? But I'm very excited about it, very excited about that world.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of all this. We will eventually see a Doctor Who movie, then question is who will it be more influenced by, Yates or Moffat? Can you see these two talents getting together and working out the best possible plan for a movie?

Here's a few comments made by Yates in previous interviews talking about his vision for the film:

We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena. 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.

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. 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.

We're principally looking for a writer, and we'll start with that. Everything has to start with a great script, so that's more important than [casting].

What do you want to see happen with the film adaptation? Do you want it rebooted or do you want it to be in line with the TV series?

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