A Doctor Who movie could only be made if it didn’t ‘hurt’ the TV series, Steven Moffat has insisted.

The showrunner – who also helms the BBC’s huge drama, Sherlock – admitted that he’s got concerns about the reported plans to make a big screen version of the sci-fi epic.

“You can’t make a movie that damages the TV series,” he told Radio Times.

“I’m very happy [for there] to be a theatre show – anything you like – but the TV show is incredibly important and must not be hurt.”

A Doctor Who movie could only be made if it didn’t ‘hurt’ the TV series, Steven Moffat has insisted.

Moffat went on to say that while he has nothing against a movie of the show being made, he admitted that he doesn’t know how it would work.

“I’m sure there’s money to be made out of it but that’s not the point, is it? We are British, the BBC. We are there for the art.”

Earlier this month leaked Sony emails released by Wikileaks revealed that there was a plan in place to produce a movie ‘within eight years’.

The Daily Telegraph reports an email sent in January last year from Andrea Wong, president of International Production for Sony, to Michael Lynton, Sony Entertainment’s CEO, states there is ‘tremendous interest’ for the BBC sci-fi show to be transformed into a movie.

The note quotes Director of BBC Television Danny Cohen saying that the show runners don’t want to rush into making a Hollywood version of the popular series.

The email reportedly reads: “Spoke to Danny and he doesn’t think it makes sense right now and actually might hurt our cause.

“He said that the creative team on the show have been having the movie conversation with BBC Worldwide in recent weeks and are very hot under the collar that their position on it is not being listened to or accepted.”

“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.”

Michael then proposes the pair should “meet” with the show runners of the programme but Andrea later replies claiming she has spoken to Danny who believes making such as motion picture sooner rather than later could in fact “hurt” the show.

It’s not the first time a Doctor Who movie has been talked about but earlier this month executive producer Steven Moffat admitted he doubts it would work if the sci-fi show appeared on the big screen.

Speaking about a possibility of a film based on the TV series – which stars Peter Capaldi as the titular Time Lord – Steven told Entertainment Weekly: “I don’t think there is [a film]. No one has ever squared the circle on that. How do we do this?

“How do we do it without leaching form the television series – which we’re not allowed to do, because Doctor Who is public funded?

“If it’s going to be a different Doctor, are we going to try and sell two Doctors at the same time?”

WikiLeaks published 173,132 emails on its website. They obtained the documents from a hack that took place on Sony Pictures Entertainment last November.

News Source:  Walesonline