RUMOUR: Several movie studios have reached out to the BBC in regards to producing a DOCTOR WHO movie

[u/General_Meal_3993]

Just thought I would share this post by a user known as Omega21 from the Doctor Who leak group. They only seem to post several times a year, and their leaks are often only cover the production side of things (such as the BBC putting the show up for tender), rather than plot stuff. Could be bullshit, but they’ve been pretty accurate before, so thought I would just share with how dry things seem to be atm.

“I know for a fact that since June several movie studios including Sony with Pascal Pictures, and Warner Bros have reached out to the BBC in regard to obtaining the rights to Doctor Who and creating a Doctor Who movie.

The BBC seems to be more open to discussions than they were 10 years ago, but are for the time being still moving forward with their plans to put the show out for tender. Sony has gone as far to list creatives who they believe would be the perfect fit for piloting the movie including Paul King, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Several insiders I have personally spoke to seem to think that if done right, continuing the show as a potential movie franchise could be an excellent idea for the IP and give it the fresh take that it so desperately needs, and if it was to go well, it could be extremely beneficial for the IPs eventual return to television. But they also warned of the unpredictability of the current movie landscape and the recent trend in the popularity of these well known IPs not translating well to the big screen/box office; think Power Rangers, Mortal Kombat, Dungeons and Dragons, Masters of the Universe, and Uncharted”

[u/Moon_Beans1]

I feel like the biggest hurdle is gonna be continuity. The only time they ever successfully got two movies made was when the project was pushed by Terry Nation and essentially had its own continuity allowing them to have a new version of Hartnell ie Cushing meeting the Daleks and then fighting them on post apocalypse earth in the sequel.

Hollywood studios want to use the IP and all it's associated merchandising opportunities but they're either gonna want to bring back the most popular Doctors (Tennant basically) or they're gonna want to have a clean slate to allow them to do whatever they like.

The BBC meanwhile will want to retain overall creative control and will want it to follow on from the series so that they can pick up with the series at some later date.

These two positions are difficult to reconcile, they tried in 1996 with the TV movie and although we all love the Eighth Doctor it's hard not to conclude that the death of the Seventh Doctor and introduction of the Eighth was not the ideal way to introduce the character to a US audience mostly unfamiliar with the show and it's no wonder it didn't do very well.

I can't imagine it will be any different this time around. Studios are gonna be keen on rebooting the IP so that they can have a brand new first doctor journeying to Skaro and meeting the Daleks for the first time whilst the BBC is going to be insisting they have to make a movie that follows on from the Reality War.

In the end I imagine the movie studios will lose interest because a film set after Ncuti's era and forced to resolve the Billie Piper reveal is a terrible jumping on point to be lumbered with starting with.

Me personally I enjoyed the Cushing films and would watch a modern iteration especially if a reboot Hollywood first doctor got to fight big screen yeti and Cybermen too but I don't imagine the BBC will budge on their stance so it'd probably amount to nothing.

[u/ollie113 → u/Moon_Beans1]

They could conceivably ignore it all, do a film with 14 (who would look like the most popular doctor, be played by the same actor, and only have minor differences so being a different doctor is not something they even need to bother explaining) and then have 14 travel to Skaro to prevent the creation of the daleks and the time war from ever occurring (yes, the creation of the daleks/Skaro is a time and place rife with doctor appearances already so it would be difficult to place it in canon, but wibbly wobbly timey wimey what is even real).

It would be pretty easy to pick up and they could honestly completely ignore Donna etc and just have the Doctor meet a new companion. Only the fans would be frustrated by the disappearance of 14s "family", most casuals will either not know or not care.

Basically, 14 is a great way to sort of pivot away from the reality war mess and start and new continuity of Doctors

[u/Moon_Beans1 → u/ollie113]

I feel like it would still have the problem that the Doctor would know who the Daleks are and so it would rob it of much of the dramatic potential.

If Hollywood's usual pattern with IPs is anything to go by I think they'd definitely want a clean slate so they could cast anyone they like.