I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I thought I would start off Monday with the news of a possible Doctor Who movie in the works for 2011. As reported by Bleeding Cool, the movie would star David Tennant as the Doctor and be written by Russell T Davies himself. Euros Lynn is expected to direct the movie. Lynn, who appeared at New York Comic Con this year, has directed some of the best of new Who: The Unquiet Dead, Tooth and Claw, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Runaway Bride, Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead and the five-part Torchwood: Children of Earth mini-special. He has also directed the yet untitled two part Who finale featuring David Tennant’s regeneration into Matt Smith.
Now if there was a Doctor Who movie in the works, where would be a good place to give it an official launch? Well, Tennant, Davies and Lynn are all scheduled to attend Comic Con International in San Diego this year, so people attending Sunday’s panel might be in for a fantastic surprise. If this Doctor Who movie becomes reality, it would be the 3rd movie to feature the adventures of the Doctor (4th if you count the never-made Doctor Who Meets Scratchman that would have featured Tom Baker’s Doctor confronting Vincent Price’s Scratchman).
The first movie, Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965), featured Peter Cushing as the mysterious “Dr. Who” and was written by Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks. In this movie Dr. Who and his companions encounter the evil Daleks on Skaro. This movie did well enough to warrant a sequel, Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966). The Daleks invade Earth and only Peter Cushing’s Dr. Who can stop them. Interestingly enough, Bernard Cribbins, who would later portray Wilfred Mott in the current Doctor Who, co-stars as Tom Campbell, Dr. Who’s reluctant companion.
During his tenure as the Doctor, Tom Baker repeatedly tried to get a feature film version Doctor Who off the ground. Baker and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) co-wrote the script and they shopped it around trying to attract funding. The movie would have featured the Doctor facing off against Scratchman, rumored to be portrayed by the great Vincent Price, battling evil scarecrows and fighting Daleks inside a giant pinball machine. By all accounts it would have been crazy-fantastic. Baker and Marter tried for years to get the film bankrolled, but it eventually died unrealized.
The 1996 Doctor Who TV movie was an attempt to revive the series for a new generation, but it ultimately failed to generate enough interest. The Doctor (Paul McGann) lands in San Francisco on the eve of the 21st century and has to battle the Master (Eric Roberts) who wants to steal the Doctor’s remaining generations using the TARDIS’s Eye of Harmony. It was all very well produced and contained tons of call backs to the classic series (perhaps too many many reviews specualte), but it failed to ignite any passion for a new series.
So as the countdown to San Diego Comic Con continues, speculation about a new Doctor Who movie rises. Click over to Bleeding Cool for more Doctor Who movie news.
Tags: Bernard Cribbins, Bleeding Cool, Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., Danid Tennant, Doctor Who, Dr. Who and the Daleks, Euros Lynn, Paul McGann, Peter Cushing, Rich Johnston, Russell T Davies, San Diego Comic Con, San Diego Convention Center, TARDIS, Tom Baker, Vincent Price
