Feel Free to Keep Panicking About A Doctor Who Movie, If You Like

Last month the Doctor Who fandom exploded with the news that Harry Potter helmer David Yates was pushing a Doctor Who movie, and saying things like “It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena,” and “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.” This seemed to many to simply be somebody making a Inspector Spacetime movie but calling it Doctor Who. This seemed to many to be a potentially terrible idea. It didn’t help that Yates apparently announced his intentions quite a bit more firmly than the BBC was ready for, and for a day or so “official” accounts of what was going on conflicted.

Well, Yates is still talking about it, and how he’s looking for a writer.

MTV Splash Page caught up with him, and asked him to talk about who he’d cast as the Doctor.

I can’t really talk about that because its such a long way away. We’re looking principally for a writer, and we’ll start with that. Everything has to start with a great script, so that’s more important.

Yates confirmed that he would not be adding his writing talents to the script. He also stated, when the news broke, that he’d be considering American writers.

Hey, you know who’s a great writer, whose books and screenplays have been made into Oscar nominated films? Who is also a life-long Doctor Who fan, has written for the show, and isn’t afraid to do things that have subtle but far reaching implications for canon? Neil Gaiman. He’s a Brit with American citizenship! Granted, he might be kind of busy writing a book next year, but it’s damn well worth a try.

(via MTV Splash Page.)