Doctor Who movie on the cards? Leaked Sony emails suggest there could be one in the next eight years

Doctor Who could be coming to the big screen within the next eight years, according to leaked emails from Sony Pictures.

The production company is said to be determined to create a movie featuring the Time Lord despite reluctance from the TV show's writers and producers.

According to leaked emails published on WikiLeaks, Sony's International Production President, Andrea Wong wrote to the same company's Entertainment CEO, Michael Lynton saying there is "tremendous interest" for the science fiction hit to be transformed into a film.

Relaying her conversations with Danny Cohen, Director of BBC Television back to Lynton, Wong announced that he told her "the show runners feel very clear that they don't want to do one at this moment".

She went on to say in the email that "[Cohen] 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."

Wong added that she also found out from Cohen that "over the course of the coming months, the show running team is coming up with an eight-year timeline for the brand. 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 eight- year horizon."

Lynton suggested to Wong that they meet with the creatives behind the programme but Wong argued that applying such pressure might "actually hurt [their] cause".

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month, Steven Moffatt, a regular writer and producer for Doctor Who poured cold water on the idea.

"If it's going to be a different Doctor, are we going to try and sell two Doctors at the same time? I know there's been loads of Doctors, but there's only been one at a time. You don't have a James Bond on television and one in the cinema. If he's the same guy, then when are we going to make that?"