Somebody’s Very Wrong About the Doctor Who Movie

Hey, remember last month, when Harry Potter director David Yates announced he was beginning work on a Doctor Who movie? Specifically, when he said this?

Yates
made clear that his movie adaptation would not follow on from the
current TV series, but would take a completely fresh approach to the
material.

“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,” he said.

Well, Steven Moffat rebutted on Twitter:

?What’s weird is that Yates made his announcement on November 14th, and Moffat only responded earlier today, December 2nd. I see one of two possibilities here: the first is that after Yates said his spiel, Moffat went to the BBC, tore them a new one, and swore he would quit Who if they didn’t get their shit straight and make the Who movie in regular contin-Who-ity. These discussions/threats took a couple of weeks, but the BBC acquiesced, and only today did Moffat feel confident enough to announce that any Who movie would be based on the TV series.

That’s one possibility. The other is that Moffat is out of the loop, because he works on the Doctor Who TV show, and not with BBC Worldwide, who are in charge of the movie. Maybe Moffat’s bosses at the Beeb are telling him it will be fine, but meanwhile Yates and his partner Jane Tranter, BBC Worldwide’s L.A.-based exec VP of
programming and production, are asking Jason Statham if he’d be interested in being a Time Lord.

I don’t know which is more likely, honestly, but I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. Thanks to all you poor, relieved Who-ligans who sent in the tip, only to have me crush your hopes. Sorry.