Yates to direct 'Doctor Who' movie

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- David Yates says he is developing a film based on the classic British science-fiction television series "Doctor Who."

The director of the last four movies in the Harry Potter franchise told Daily Variety he is collaborating with Jane Tranter, head of BBC Worldwide Productions, on the "Doctor Who" project.

Yates and Tranter previously worked together on several British series such as "The Way We Live Now" and "State of Play."

"We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right," Yates told the entertainment industry trade newspaper. "It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena."

The TV show initially ran from 1963 to 1989, then was revived in 2005.

Yates said the movie will not follow the show's story lines, but will, instead, stand alone.

"[The show's writer-producers] 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," Yates said.