DW Film in Development

Lizo Mzimba has confirmed via his Twitter page that BBC Films are currently working on a script for a feature-length Doctor Who film!

Even though this is fantastic news, it doesn’t guarantee a movie will definitely happen, but at least it means that after the years of rumours and speculation, they’re discussing possible storylines, cast, budgets, etc… for a big screen adventure at last!

Obviously, the planning stage for any film takes some time, so it could be months until we hear any official word, and of course there’s always the possibility it won’t be commissioned at all. But for now, we can be assured that they are at least talking about a Doctor Who movie, but whether or not it will get the green light remains to be seen…

But the fact there’s a possible movie in the pipeline also begs the question: who will play the Doctor in it? As we all know, David will be stepping down as the Tenth incarnation of the Time Lord at the end of the year, being replaced by Matt Smith who will take over the TARDIS in Series 5 in 2010. So will the movie - if it goes ahead - feature Matt Smith in the lead role? Or will it be a Tenth Doctor ‘unseen adventure’ instead, centered around his travelling days with Rose or Martha or Donna? Or maybe even the, as of yet, untold story of his relationship with River Song?

After browsing various other websites and forums, we’ve discovered that not everybody is for the idea of a Doctor Who movie. We personally think it’s the right way for the programme to go (and we’ve already been shown, in episodes like Voyage of the Damned and Journey’s End, that the current production team would have no difficulty in creating an epic story for the big screen!), however we agree with the vast majority of fans who have said they wouldn’t want the TV series to be sacrificed while the film was being made. Doctor Who is, at the end of a day, a TV programme, so it would feel odd to have it taken off the air for a film of it to be produced.

But what if there were TWO production teams - one working on the feature film, starring David Tennant, and another working on Series 5 with Matt Smith? BBC Films would’ve put money aside for a separate filming production crew anyway, and we’ve already got some evidence that the film is to be written by Russell T Davies after the information was added (and soon removed) from his agency website last week. Two production teams would allow a feature film and the full series to be shot simultaneously without disrupting the show. Besides, the film would take many months to film - much longer than your average series - so, like Lizo’s said, it won’t be released until late 2010/early 2011 at the earliest. And for those of you concerned that a movie starring Tennant would steal the spotlight off Matt, he might have been and gone by the time the movie is ready to be unleashed to the world, making way for an unseen Tenth Doctor adventure to bridge the gap between Matt’s Series 5 and 2011’s Series 6 with the new Twelth Doctor.

Maybe we’re jumping way ahead of ourselves, but feel free to let us know your thoughts about this news below!