Doctor Who star Matt Smith and famed LOTR director Peter Jackson both think it would be great idea for the veteran genre helmer to direct an episode of the show.
The idea first surfaced during a phone interview Matt Smith had with a New Zealand publication a little over a week ago. Stuff Magazine asked Smith – who has never visited the country before – what he would think of filming a Doctor Who episode in New Zealand, a location which is popular for filming fantasy adventures, especially the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming Hobbit trilogy.
”I think it would be an absolutely wonderful place to film Doctor Who,” Smith said. ”I’m told it’s glorious. I’m told it’s quite similar to England. … Let’s get Peter Jackson to direct one and go and make it in New Zealand. I would love to, I will campaign endlessly to come over and film there. … There’s clearly a great film industry out there. It’s something I would be very interested in it’s just whether we can persuade the producers to fly us all over.”
Stuff then contacted Jackson about the idea. “I’m a huge Dr Who fan,and I think Matt’s fantastic,” the director said. “Just name a time and place, and I’ll be there!”
Of course this is just a show of interest, no deals have been struck, but the move would not be without precedent. The ranks of Doctor Who show runners are not closed, and there has even been a case of a sort of celebrity creator (by which I mean, one of the episode creators was a big enough deal that they made it part of the advertising, which they would certainly also do for Jackson) when author Neil Gaiman tried his hand at writing an episode of the show. That episode, The Doctor’s Wife, went on to win a Hugo award, so obviously turned out rather well.
We’ll have to wait for a chat between Jackson and the Doctor Who exec producer, Steven Moffat, to get any kind of official word, of course, but I wouldn’t count it out as a pipe dream. Personally, I’d love to see what he can do with the show.
Doctor Who’s seventh season is currently playing Saturday evenings on BBC One and BBC America.
