Dr Who to hit the Big Screen

David Yates, the director who did the last 4 Harry Potter movies is now turning his attention to creating a movie franchise of Dr Who. In an interview with Variety he acknowledge that he is starting work with “Jane Tranter, head of L.A.-based BBC Worldwide Prods“.In this interview he states that this will be a brand new revision of the Dr and he would be starting from scratch and it would be completely fresh. He points to the fact the 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. Yates also points out that he is looking for writers that this will be a long process that will take a couple of years at least and he is not limiting the search for writers just to the UK but to both sides of the Atlantic.
“We’re looking at writers now. We’re going to spend two to three years to get it right,” he told Daily Variety, adding “It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.” Words which will sound alarm bells to the die-hard Doctor Who fans.

Opinion Time

Sometimes I think this is not one of my smartest ideas to post an opinion but every time I blog this type of story where there is going to be a re-imaging of an iconic character or of shows I get this why mess with perfection or why mess with a perfectly fine story plot attitude. Sometimes or should I say most of the time the feeling has been proven right but there are the few occasions like Star Trek where that feeling was wrong. So because there is these few times and because there is a quality director making the film I am trying to keep an open mind about the outcome of the productions and reserve a wait and see attitude on it. At the same time I have to ask the whys in respect with Dr Who. There is so many avenues they could go with making a major film without messing up a perfectly fine and accepted story line that has already been created. Even Davies and Moffat with their renditions respected the plot lines from the past. I can think of 2 ways to go right of the top of my head that will both respect the status quo and give some creative licensing. One is an origin story the other would be the Dalek/ Gallifrian war. Pretty much both are virgin territory with respect to the franchise and the film makers and writers can have some liberties.
I am also aware that this is not the first time Dr Who was re-imaged for the big screen. Dr. Who and the Daleks, released in 1965 and Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. in 1966. Both starred Peter Cushing and both were highly enjoyable to watch. But I keep thinking on how the general public both now and then thought of them. Here is an excerpt from wikipedia on the first Dr Who movie and you will see why I get ambivioulous of how Hollywood or big companies look at remaking iconic shows.

Several changes were made to the main characters. Cushing’s Dr. Who is portrayed as an Earth-born scientist and inventor (whose surname is actually Who) who built TARDIS (not The TARDIS as in the television show), his time travelling ship. In the film, TARDIS is larger on the inside than on the outside (as with the television TARDIS), but its internals consist of masses of wires and switches, with an abundance of blinking lights, rather than the simpler console room of the series. Cushing plays the Doctor as an amiable and absent-minded inventor, in contrast to William Hartnell’s more prickly and mysterious persona, though Cushing’s version does show leadership and determination in moments of crisis. Barbara and Susan are now both his granddaughters (and both, as a result, carry the surname Who; in the original series Susan adopts the surname Foreman). Ian Chesterton is now Barbara’s bumbling boyfriend, and the entire subplot of them being Susan’s teachers is dropped. Ian is the comic relief in the film, rather than the heroic version seen in The Daleks.
Because of this departure from the established continuity of the television series, this film is generally not considered canon, although attempts have been made in various spin-off media to fit it in

The last part I encapsulated in a bold font to make the point that the film was not really considered part of the Dr Who world.

If you want just for the hell of it you can watch it on Youtube. I would of streamed it on this site but the embedding was disabled. Here is the link Dr. Who And The Daleks

I am not totally opposed to the idea of a major film priduction of Dr Who . Like I said I am going to reserve a wait and see attitude. But I do have one piece of advice for Mr. Yates about doing a total recreation of an icon. Remember Godzilla 1998. That all I got to say. So what do you think of a re-imaged Dr Who to the big screen ?

Dr. Who and the Daleks Trailer (American)