View source for Pop stars to sue BBC in Dr Who film row

{{article
| publication = The Observer
| file = 1996-01-21 Observer.jpg
| px = 500
| height = 
| width = 
| date = 1996-01-21
| author = Martin Wroe
| pages = 7
| language = English 
| type = 
| description = 
| categories =  Spielberg
| moreTitles = 
| morePublications = 
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| text = 
Producers claim that cancelled contract has cost them £500,000


SINGER Bryan Ferry and Dire Straits guitarist John Illsley are among a consortium of investors launching a multi-million pound law suit against the BBC over a Dr Who film that will never be made.

The consortium, which invested in film production company Daltenreys, claims it lost up to £500,000 when the BBC sold the Dr Who TV rights to an American film company. Daltenreys claims it was a month away from starting to shoot a £20 million film version when the BBC abruptly terminated the contract.

While Ferry has lost 'only a few thousand', Illsley has lost more than £100,000. The three founders of Daltenreys, all special effects TV producers who worked on the original BBC programme, claim they have been nearly bankrupted.

Daltenreys paid the BBC £400,000 for the film rights to Dr Who in 1989. The company's founders — John Humphreys, George Dugdale and Peter Litten — were convinced the famous time-traveller had a future as a Nineties science fiction hero and planned a big-budget cinema production.

Ferry, according to a friend, had long been a fan of Dr Who. 'Bryan's always watched it, which is why he was interested, but it wasn't a huge investment, only a dabble really.'

Humphreys claims the BBC encouraged the company to take its time over the film to ensure it was a successful production. Daltenreys had the rights to three Dr Who films, provided the first was a hit.

After failing to find American backing, the company signed a deal with Lumiere, a French-backed film company, which costed the project at £20m. Leonard Nimoy — best known as Mr Spock in Star Trek — was keen to direct, and Alan Rickman had been approached to play the lead.

But Daltenreys discovered in early 1993 that the BBC was courting Steven Spielberg's Amblin Studios with a view to making a new TV series. Although alarmed that a televised Dr Who would undermine their cinema version, the company pressed on.

A year later the BBC told Daltenreys the company had infringed its contract and it was withdrawing film rights. Then Lumiere, after spending more than £1m, pulled out of the venture.

Last week the BBC announced it had agreed a coproduction deal with Universal Studios for a two-hour TV film starring Paul McGann. It will be produced by Philip Segal, the man who initially acted for Amblin in talks with the BBC.

Illsley, who had continued to invest in Daltenreys over the years, expressed astonishment last week. 'I'd be staggered if the BBC does not do the decent thing and compensate the company. When they started talking to Spielberg, it totally pulled the rug from under us.'

A spokeswoman for BBC Worldwide said the corporation owned the rights to Dr Who and had no plans for a movie. 'The rights were licensed previously to a third party for a specific period. Unfortunately, the production did not get off the ground within an extended licence time and the rights reverted to the BBC.

'There is no legal action against us, and if legal proceedings were to be issued they would be vigorously contested.'


Caption: Ferry: long-time fan, but investment 'only a dabble'.

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