David (Harry Potter) Yates to direct Doctor Who The Movie!
- Thread starter StCoop
- Start date
Can't wait to see how he explains away the LA Times interview!
More "off-the-cuff" remarks?
"Any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and certainly NOT be a Hollywood reboot."
Either Moffat's wrong or Yeats is and of the two only one's conducted himself with any dignity since the news broke, so I know who my money's on.
Your own prejudice aside, there's nothing Yeats said in that interview that is contradicted by Moffat. I don't know where you're getting it from but it's not from these statements. "Starting from scratch" does not mean reboot. It could mean many things but is sufficiently vague to mean nothing much at all.
Well he's not part of the BBC Doctor Who team for one thing.
Remember Peter Jackson's Halo movie? I think he was pretty enthusiastic about that at one point, too.
I'd love to see a big-budget Doctor Who movie. Maybe Yates will deliver one. Maybe not. But the way the film industry works, it's still way too early to call. Never count your Doctors before they regenerate.
I'd love to see a big-budget Doctor Who movie. Maybe Yates will deliver one. Maybe not. But the way the film industry works, it's still way too early to call. Never count your Doctors before they regenerate.
What's wrong with that for heaven's sake? The BBC Team will obviously be augmented with a whole raft of other people to make a movie.
I'm fairly sure I've read of a fan theory that the Cushing movies were based on stories written by Barbara, about her time with the Doctor, with any changes being made on purpose to hide the truth, or by those making the movies, for dramatic purposes.
The BBC has an amazing franchise with Doctor Who, but it's big problem for audiences now is that those who remember growing up watching Dr Who are only getting older, and that many of the early stories are lost, or low quality, black and white, and suffer from low production values and the passing of time. There's also the daunting aspect for completely new fans who want to see the story from the start, rather than starting with the 9th incarnation.
I'd be very pleased to see a First Doctor movie (esp if it were to be Robert Carlyle as the Doc), but keep it in continuity, as much as the Dr worries about continuity (which, to be fair, is not a lot).
So it's a wibbly wobbly reboot, were we see the Doctor as a child, running through the fields with his best mate, the Master. We get to see Gallifrey in it's hayday, which we don't and won't get to see on the tv series because both of the new showrunners, RTD and The Moff, don't want it around getting in the Doctor's way. We then see him, bored with the stuffy life of obligation, duty and ceremony on Gallifrey, stumbling into an unlocked TARDIS and telling it she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, and he's off into the unknown, possibly with his not-yet-fallen-from-grace best friend sent on his heels to bring him back in.
For the tv show to go back and do that story, I don't think it would work. They'd never get the budget to give it justice in a 2 or even 3 part story, they'd not get to build a different TARDIS that was any good.
The Doctor is a concept that is bigger than the sum of it's parts. It's bigger than the showrunner, the actors, the look and feel of the show.
I also seem to remember that RTD had a bit of a problem when it came to the Time War. He'd written about the time war in novels, and wanted to bring it into continuity, but I believe it's a part of the BBC's charter that it can't do that, they can't make something that has to be bought separately an essential part of the tv show, it goes against the nature of the tv license. So, he had to make it about another time war, the last great time war, that was separate from the one in the books but oddly similar. That makes any big screen/dvd/bluray version of the Doctor automatically outside of the tv series continuity, unless they're going to let you into the cinema for free on presentation of your tv license.
The BBC has an amazing franchise with Doctor Who, but it's big problem for audiences now is that those who remember growing up watching Dr Who are only getting older, and that many of the early stories are lost, or low quality, black and white, and suffer from low production values and the passing of time. There's also the daunting aspect for completely new fans who want to see the story from the start, rather than starting with the 9th incarnation.
I'd be very pleased to see a First Doctor movie (esp if it were to be Robert Carlyle as the Doc), but keep it in continuity, as much as the Dr worries about continuity (which, to be fair, is not a lot).
So it's a wibbly wobbly reboot, were we see the Doctor as a child, running through the fields with his best mate, the Master. We get to see Gallifrey in it's hayday, which we don't and won't get to see on the tv series because both of the new showrunners, RTD and The Moff, don't want it around getting in the Doctor's way. We then see him, bored with the stuffy life of obligation, duty and ceremony on Gallifrey, stumbling into an unlocked TARDIS and telling it she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, and he's off into the unknown, possibly with his not-yet-fallen-from-grace best friend sent on his heels to bring him back in.
For the tv show to go back and do that story, I don't think it would work. They'd never get the budget to give it justice in a 2 or even 3 part story, they'd not get to build a different TARDIS that was any good.
The Doctor is a concept that is bigger than the sum of it's parts. It's bigger than the showrunner, the actors, the look and feel of the show.
I also seem to remember that RTD had a bit of a problem when it came to the Time War. He'd written about the time war in novels, and wanted to bring it into continuity, but I believe it's a part of the BBC's charter that it can't do that, they can't make something that has to be bought separately an essential part of the tv show, it goes against the nature of the tv license. So, he had to make it about another time war, the last great time war, that was separate from the one in the books but oddly similar. That makes any big screen/dvd/bluray version of the Doctor automatically outside of the tv series continuity, unless they're going to let you into the cinema for free on presentation of your tv license.
Neil Gaiman isn't part of the Doctor Who Team, yet he worked on the show. Stephen Fry isn't part of the Doctor Who team, worked on the show but didn't get made. There's directors who aren't part of the team yet have directed a 2 parter.
David Yates not being part of the team means nothing. It could still be made in with the BBC Team doesn't mean it has to be written by Steven Moffat and directed by Euros Lyn.
Moffat is working through the five stages of grief.
We've had denial -- the "moonshot" tweet.
Now we're into anger -- the "To clarify" tweet.
We're possibly even into bargaining, since he brings up the "BBC Team." He's trying to deal himself into a situation he's not a part of.
Kidding aside...
There are two possibilities. The first is that the various parts of the BBC are not talking to one another. If so, a summit between the various players -- Tranter, Yates, Moffat -- would be ideal, just to get them all on the same page and talking off the same script.
The other possibility for Moffat's vehemence (or "denial," if you like) is that Moffat has a corner to defend because he has the most to lose -- he has a Christmas production to promote over the next month, and now there's this tangentially related promotion that's sucking up the energy and attention that he wants and needs, both personally and professionally for the Christmas special. Add to that, some of the coverage of the Christmas special is bound to mention Yates and the movie, because that's what the media does -- "You just watched this, and remember that there's a movie coming in a few years from Harry Potter's David Yates" -- and that's going to tweak Moffat, too. His Christmas triumph becomes a appetizer to someone else's plans.
We've had denial -- the "moonshot" tweet.
Now we're into anger -- the "To clarify" tweet.
We're possibly even into bargaining, since he brings up the "BBC Team." He's trying to deal himself into a situation he's not a part of.
Kidding aside...
There are two possibilities. The first is that the various parts of the BBC are not talking to one another. If so, a summit between the various players -- Tranter, Yates, Moffat -- would be ideal, just to get them all on the same page and talking off the same script.
The other possibility for Moffat's vehemence (or "denial," if you like) is that Moffat has a corner to defend because he has the most to lose -- he has a Christmas production to promote over the next month, and now there's this tangentially related promotion that's sucking up the energy and attention that he wants and needs, both personally and professionally for the Christmas special. Add to that, some of the coverage of the Christmas special is bound to mention Yates and the movie, because that's what the media does -- "You just watched this, and remember that there's a movie coming in a few years from Harry Potter's David Yates" -- and that's going to tweak Moffat, too. His Christmas triumph becomes a appetizer to someone else's plans.
It more sounds like Yates wants to do the movie he spoke of but then the BBC (which own the rights) and Moffat met up and clarified exactly what they (the BBC) would allow to be done with the property. After all, having a movie with one actor playing the Doctor and another one playing the Doctor on TV would be confusing to the general public.
The real question is whether or not Moffat was on script with his two Tweets. Moffat's interests and the BBC's interests don't necessarily coincide here -- he has a television show to manage, while the Corporation has a franchise to maintain and nourish -- and protecting his production, especially in the way that he did, can be damaging to the Doctor Who brand in the short and long term. Short term, because he's just added fuel to the Yates story -- now Hollywood reporters are going to want to dig into the story deeper. Long term, because Moffat's denials of the movie could cause some heartburn in negotiations with potential production partners for the film. In light of those considerations, I suspect that Moffat was off script, which leads us down a very interesting path -- Does Moffat want to be fired?
Perhaps, but then again perhaps not. He apparently didn't want to do a long stint on the show anyway and wants to move on to original projects, according to what's been said online. Though it may be that BBC Worldwide are working on getting a film made, while BBC are wanting something different. Who knows?
Except Jane Tranter and BBC Worldwide have been trying to get this project moving for the past few years. The idea that the BBC didn't know about it until the other week doesn't really hold water. Moffat didn't but that's between him and the BBC to deal with.
Give Moffat some credit: he wouldn't post something like this if he wasn't being on-message with the BBC.
Exactly why is he in the wrong? If anything this is the most reassuring thing I've seen because I firmly believe a competing continuity would be destructive to growing the TV Doctor Who, especially given the efforts being made to internationalize it this past year or so. A continuation of the TV series remains the only logical thing to do and the good news is if Yates does proceed it's early enough days that they can still make the tie-in.
Hell, on Wednesday night you even had Craig Ferguson and Alex Kingston criticizing the idea of a reimagining on his TV show.
Alex
Exactly why is he in the wrong? If anything this is the most reassuring thing I've seen because I firmly believe a competing continuity would be destructive to growing the TV Doctor Who, especially given the efforts being made to internationalize it this past year or so. A continuation of the TV series remains the only logical thing to do and the good news is if Yates does proceed it's early enough days that they can still make the tie-in.
Hell, on Wednesday night you even had Craig Ferguson and Alex Kingston criticizing the idea of a reimagining on his TV show.
Alex
Well, it would mean no Doctor Who on TV for a year or two for one thing. How happy will people be with that?
