10 Failed Doctor Who Movies (And Why They Didn't Happen)
2. Harry Potter Director David Yates' "Radical" Idea
One of the most random movie news stories of the decade, director David Yates - who helmed the Harry Potter movies from Order of the Phoenix onward, as well as the Fantastic Beasts spinoffs - once came out of nowhere and said that he was working on a Doctor Who movie.
In 2011, Variety reported that the filmmaker was working with BBC Worldwide's Jane Tranter to develop the picture, with Yates himself stating that he was looking at writers, and that he was going to spend "two to three years" to give the show a "radical transformation" into a big screen movie.
At the time, the main show was going incredibly strong, with the David Tennant era having recently finished, and Matt Smith in the middle of his. Doctor Who had never been bigger, which led to a lot of fan backlash over the idea of Hollywood taking the show and twisting it into a disconnected two-hour sideshow.
Seemingly aware of this negativity, Yates started to downplay the movie in early 2012, stating that it was still "five to seven years" away. Then, a few months later, former showrunner Steven Moffat told EW that the film was a "weird fantasy", and that Yates had never even signed on to do anything Doctor Who related.
In 2015, Moffat once again shot down the idea of a Doctor Who film, and Yates hasn't said anything about the project since those original reports.