Doctor Who Film & TV

More Rumors About New Series Persist: Rumors are flying concerning possible plans for a new Doctor Who series. Outpost Gallifrey confirmed in late May that at least one proposal had been submitted to the BBC by a name fairly well-known in Doctor Who circles of late, and that the proposal was specifically requested from this individual by internal BBC executives. Dan Freedman, the person behind the "Death Comes to Time" BBC Radio proposal, has revealed little information other than vague hints on the BBC's official site discussion forum, though it has become fairly well known now that Freedman is indeed behind one of these proposals. Meanwhile, SFX magazine reports in their newest issue that they have heard rumors about a possible revival of the series timed to coincide with the series' 40th anniversary in the fall of 2003. SFX makes note that some BBC officials have been well aware of the interest surrounding possible plans for a film project, while at least one report out of the BBC suggests that they have become aware of the apathy about a film (as opposed to a series). What is certain is that the BBC is planning something to mark the anniversary, though what sort of event this ultimately turns out to be is uncertain. We'll keep you posted.

Here We Go Again...: Various internet sites are reporting that a Doctor Who film announcement may be imminent, based upon a variety of purely coincidental happenings. First, the BBC Films bureau announced at Cannes in early May that they had secured over 100 million pounds for funding of several big-budget film projects, though Doctor Who was never specifically mentioned, and that they had secured film deals with Cobalt Media Group. Cinescape Online recently featured a story which suggested (based, as far as we can tell, on earlier rumors) that this might include Doctor Who. The reports (erroneously) state that Doctor Who toy merchandiser Dapol has been instructed not to release any new merchandise (stating that, coincidentally, this same sort of thing happened before the 1996 TV movie) but Dapol has denied this; see "Miscellaneous" below. We stress that (a) yes, we've heard all of this, and (b) we've heard it before; see the report "And Yet... It May Happen" below.

Hugh Grant is Not The Doctor: Various news sources reported in mid April that actor Hugh Grant (who already participated in a Doctor Who story, the 1999 Comic Relief parody "The Curse of Fatal Death") had been approached to star as the Doctor in a forthcoming feature film. The report was subsequently picked up by a variety of respectable sources including BBC America and MSN. There is no truth to this... Hugh Grant's publicity office told the online magazine Empire Online that it was all news to him. "I spoke to Hugh and he hasn't heard anything about it at all," Karin Smith, Grant's representative at his film company, Simian Films, told Empire. "It's a hypothetical question, so I couldn't comment on that." The BBC later completely denied the story. (With thanks to the multitude of readers who emailed us in the past 24 hours about this...)