Harry Potter Director To Helm Doctor Who Movie

David Yates has said that he's started working on a Doctor Who movie.

The Harry Potter director is to develop the film alongside BBC Worldwide's Jane Tranter, Variety reports.

Yates is quoted as saying: "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 film, Yates said, would not follow the current TV show's timeline, and would take an entirely new approach to the long-running series.

He explained: "Russell T Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch.

"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."

Explaining why he was joining the project, 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."

A BBC spokesperson added: "A Doctor Who feature film remains in development with BBC Worldwide Productions in Los Angeles.

"The project is unlikely to reach cinemas for several years and as yet there is no script, cast or production crew in place."

Doctor Who celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2013.