Top Secret for Dr Who

Internet rumours surrounding a proposed small and big screen outing for classic sci-fi hero Dr Who have gone into overdrive today following a scoop by Dark Horizons. In a feature posted this morning, an anonymous source 'confirms' that a film from BBC films is in the offing but insists that there is no director or script yet. British writer/director Paul Anderson had originally been linked to the project, but the source alleges that disagreements between Anderson - who wanted Laurence Fishburne in the lead - and the BBC (who have their own preference for the role) caused discussions to break down. The feature suggests that the favoured actor is already known in the halls of the BBC, and refuses to name him, but did someone spill the beans already? In the latest issue of Empire (July 2000), Stephen Fry responds to a question from a reader about his possible appearance in a Dr Who radio programe as follows: 'It is true. It's extraordinarily clever of him to know that. I've been sworn to the utmost secrecy by the BBC because there is such a huge contingency of Whovians, I think they call them. So it is true, but I can't tell you what part I play of what happens in it because I would be assassinated if I did.' While Fry doesn't reveal whether he plays the Dr, Empire Online feels he would be perfect to take the role of the doctor in the millennium. Could the BBC be thinking the same thing?