WORD has reached TV Biz that the Beeb have found the man to take over as Doctor Who from David Tennant - Cold Feet star James Nesbitt.
David, 36, is expected to quit at the end of the next series and insiders say Irishman James, 42, is a cert to get the Tardis key.
The Jekyll star is pals with Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, tipped to replace show chief Russell T Davies when he also stands down at the end of the next series.
Our mole said: “Moffat has worked with James on Jekyll and the talk in BBC Drama is that he’s a shoo-in as the next Doctor.
“First a Scottish Doctor – now we could have a Northern Irish one.”
James is in the US filming a new BBC show.
For those of you who have not seen Jekyll (on BBC America in the States), here’s a trailer:
I’m interested in how many rumored new Doctors we’ll see in the coming year.
But what great news about Moffat, eh? His scripts (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, Girl in the Fireplace, Blink) have been the best of the new series all along. We’d be lucky to have him as the new producer.
The Sci-Fi Channel is premiering a new version of the classic raygun toting Flash Gordon whom Queen frontman Freddie Mercury would like us to believe ‘is a miracle!’
Given Sci-Fi’s fascination with B-Movies, this might be just the right property for them.
Flash Gordon is broadly imaginative pulp following the adventures of Flash, Professor Zarkov and Dale Arden duking it out with Ming the Merciless on the exotic planet Mongo where strange aliens lived in separate kingdoms ruled by the evil despot. It’s Flash’s fighting spirit that unites them into a fighting force strong enough to combat the evil Ming’s armies and free the planet from his control.
The comic strip was created in 1939 to compete with the successful Buck Rogers and has a long history of attracting the most talented creators, including the incredible Alex Raymond and the impeccable Al Williamson. It has always been the astounding artwork which attributes a layer of elegance and charm to the franchise.
The Flash Gordon serials (featuring curly Buster Crabbe as the lead) are responsible for most of the cliches that we take for granted these days in film and TV. In fact, they encouraged one awkward teen named George Lucas to go into filmmaking with the goal of making the ultimate Flash Gordon movie one day.
He came close, but called it Star Wars for some reason.
All of that charm is peeled away with the destructive power of a heat gun after seeing the Flash Gordon 1980 film which can easily turn the most innocent date into an awkward evening in.
Don’t believe me? Try asking your date if he/she wants another drink during any number of the ’strip Flash down to his leather trunks and torture him scenes.’
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an intensely imaginative and fun film full of mad imagery not seen in any other sci-fi film (just look at the trippy sky!).
It also features the oddest cast of any science fiction film, somehow earning the most unusual performances from Topol, Max Von Sydow, Peter Wyngarde (of the British 60’s cult hit Jason King), brief Bond Timothy Dalton, Rocky Horror’s Richard O’Brien and the loudest man in all of England (I hope to overtake that rep in my own good time), the howling Brian Blessed.
Sci-fi is apparently determined to honor the past versions of the franchise as well, given that the star of the 1980 film Sam Jones will be guest-starring in a special episode in October.
It remains to be seen what direction the producers wish to take the series (since it has not been aired yet), but from what I have heard it maintains the origin story of a ‘regular guy’ hero against the forces of evil.
The Sci-Fi Channel has had an enormous hit with Farscape followed by the best TV sci-fi ever made with Battlestar Galactica… if they pull this series off right it could finally put the channel on the map as a source of great science fiction… wouldn’t that be nice?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an intensely imaginative and fun film full of mad imagery not seen in any other sci-fi film (just look at the trippy sky!).
Sci-fi is apparently determined to honor the past versions of the franchise as well, given that the star of the 1980 film Sam Jones will be guest-starring in a special episode in October.
