Doctor Who set for new Hollywood adaptation

We're starting to feel sorry for Sony.

After its most intimate, embarrassing emails were slung around the web by North Korean (probably) hackers, its entire outbox leak has now been made searchable by the good folk over at Wikileaks.

A new story to have emerged from the archiving of pinched communications includes an email concerning a new film adaptation of the BBC's Doctor Who. 

The string of emails detail that Sony CEO Michael Lynton was keen to meet with Doctor Who showrunners back in January 2014. However, the BBC's Danny Cohen was apparently at pains to emphasise (via president of international production Andrea Wong) that the show's creative team had been in conversation with BBC World Wide. The email, from Wong to Lynton, reads as follows.

"He said that while there has been tremendous interest (and pressure from BBCWW) to do a Dr Who film, the show runners feel very clear that they don’t want to do one at this moment.  That said, over the course of the coming months, the show running team is coming up with an 8 year timeline for the brand  – laying out all that will happen with it. He says that a film will certainly be a part of that timeline. So the answer is that a film won’t happen in the next year to 18 months, but it is expected that it will happen after that within the 8 year horizon. He expects the plan to be laid out by the end of the year...

"He appreciates SPE’s enthusiasm and remembers that you brought it up when we met.  I asked him to keep us in mind as the plan forms and I can check in with him at the end of the year if you all are still enthusiastic...."

So - there won't be a film announcement any time soon (given that the emails were sent some 15 months into that mentioned 18 month window), but plans are in motion. 

It's not the first time Doctor Who has found his way onto the big screen - two appeared in the 1960's, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., while a larger budget Doctor Who failed to capture the American audience in 1996.

Are you a Whovian? Concerned by news of a new Who film being pushed by BBC World Wide? Let us know your thoughts with the poll below. 

[Via: Wikileaks, Telegraph]

[Images: BBC Worldwide]