The final Harry Potter films were great, the last of them is probably my favorite (once you combine the two parts to make one actual movie) and I thought David Yates did a very good job directing them. However, I don’t see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince the both parts of Deathly Hallows as evidence Yates is a director worth getting excited over. In essence he’s directed one film, although I will say his work on the original BBC miniseries “State of Play” was quite good and far superior than the resulting feature film adaptation.
All of that said, I think Yates is a director to keep any eye on. I found it to be particularly interesting when he was briefly attached to direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Stand” at Warner Bros. and even though that won’t be playing out the news out of Variety that he’ll be tackling a feature film adaptation of the hit BBC series “Doctor Who” is equally, if not more so, compelling.
I have yet to see an episode of “Doctor Who” but I hear enough about it on Twitter to know it’s a show many people are highly passionate about. The series is a reboot of the 1963-1989 show and centers on a time-traveling Lord known as The Doctor who picks up human companions and faces evil foes with little more than his wits and a sonic screwdriver while he journeys throughout time and space in the TARDIS—a unique craft disguised as a police call box.
Yates told Variety, “We’re looking at writers now. We’re going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena.”
The goal is to once again start from scratch and reintroduce the character on the big screen. Considering this decision I doubt there will be a repeat of either David Tennant or Matt Smith in the lead role.
One of these days I’m going to catch up on the television show as not only the most recent series, but even the older episodes, are available on Netflix Instant Play. I just need to find the time.
For those of you that do watch the show, does this excite you? Do you have anyone you’d like to see as The Doctor?
