From the Tardis to the big screen: Doctor Who to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster

By Paul Thompson

Last updated at 8:05 AM on 15th November 2011

TV’s Doctor Who is to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster.

The director of the Harry Potter movies announced he will be making a big screen version of the long-running BBC science fiction series.

David Yates said he has started a search for writers to plot a new chapter for the ageless Time Lord.

Big screen bound: Doctor Who is to be made into a Hollywood movie - but there are no plans to cast Matt Smith, the current Doctor, and his assistant Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan

It is unlikely Matt Smith, who plays the current Doctor Who, will land the lead role.

Yates said the new film will not follow on from the popular TV series and hinted the Harry Potter scriptwriter Steve Kloves could land the job of writing the new film.

On the hunt: Director David Yates said he has started a search for writers for the big screen version

Yates said: 'The notion of the time-travelling Time Lord is such a strong one, because you can express story and drama in any dimension or time.'

The film will be made in co-operation with the BBC where the TV series ran from 1963-1989 before being re-launched six years ago.

The re-boot of the long-running series by writers Russell T Davies and Steve Moffat has proved a success both in the UK and America where it has a cult following.

Smith is the 11th doctor, taking over from David Tennant who spent four years on the show after it was revived by the BBC in 2005 with Christopher Ecclestone in the role.

Comedy star Catherine Tate had a guest role in the series with Tennant.

Yates said the film would stay loyal to its roots even if an American writes the script.

'We want a British sensibility, but having said that, Steve Kloves wrote the Potter films and captured that British sensibility perfectly, so we are looking at American writers too,' he told the Hollywood trade paper Variety.

The Los Angeles based unit of BBC Worldwide will be involved in the production of the film which is at least three years away from hitting the screens.

Yates said: 'We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right,' he said. 'It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena."

Yates directed the final two parts of the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.