When Peter Jackson revealed that would love to direct Doctor Who (after Matt Smith said he’d love to film an episode of Doctor Who in New Zealand), we, like most of the world, thought, “Lovely idea, but it’s never going to happen.”
But it looks like the BBC isn’t being quite so dismissive. And the creator of Luthor , Neil Cross, who now lives in Wellington, has thrown his hat into the ring too.
According to The Waikato Times , Cross, a friend of Who executive producer Caro Skinner, has offered to write a story that could be shot in New Zealand and urged Ms Skinner to speak to the Times . Which she did.
“It is beyond wonderful that Peter is a fan of the show and it's beyond flattering that he’d even think about it," says Skinner. "I'm absolutely sure that we couldn't afford him but, you know, we can always negotiate. His enthusiasm is just fantastic of course."
She warns, though, that any such collaboration would be a long way off: “Of course at some point we'd love to bring Doctor Who down under . . . it won't be possible until at least a year after the 50th anniversary. We are already two-thirds of the way through the shoots of series seven and although we filmed a couple of episodes abroad I can confirm for the rest of series seven we will be shooting entirely in Cardiff Bay.”
Intriguingly, the Times also points out that both Steven Moffat and Neil Cross – who is already writing an episode for the second half of series seven of Doctor Who – are in LA this weekend (with Sherlock and Luthor both up for Emmy awards) and an impromptu story conference is expected to take place.
"Let's see what those two very brilliant writers come up with whilst they are in LA,” says Skinner. "Rest assured that we are thinking about it. The landscapes and just the world of New Zealand is of course phenomenal and many movies are set in your beautiful country. It is also an extremely long way from Cardiff Bay so the logistics and the sheer scale of moving Doctor Who to New Zealand is something that would take an awful lot of planning and time.”
Read our Doctor Who series 7 reviews .
