Hmmm…well, if you were waiting for a live action movie, you might be waiting for a very long time.
But if you’re willing to go for an animated feature film or even a stage production, you might be in luck. That’s what we got from an interview with John Doug Naylor: thirty-six screenplay drafts later, they’re still no closer to a feature live action film.
The movie, basically, hit a wall. I was close on so, so many occasions, where it really did look like the money was going to be there – and it always fell out. And the last time it fell out was because the BBC wouldn’t give us a TV deal – so in other words, they wouldn’t agree to buy the movie. And so everyone then goes “Well, why? This series has been really successful, there must be something wrong with it if they don’t want to buy it”. And their stance on it is that they won’t buy individual movies, and they aren’t prepared to make an exception with something like Red Dwarf. And some people at the BBC, really high up people, thought that was scandalous – but that’s the rule.
The full interview is here on Ganymede & Titan. Found via Chortle.
Update: Jonathan from Ganymede & Titan points out in the comments below that we confused Doug Naylor with John Naylor. Doug Naylor is the man they interviewed, and John Naylor is not affiliated with Red Dwarf at all. He is instead known for writing episodes 27-31 of UFO and the fifth season of Blake’s 7. We do apologize for the confusion and we’re sure John takes no offence that Jonathan denies his existence.
Nice to see John Naylor get some attention. He’s all too often eclipsed by his more famous – and considerably more existent – brother Doug Naylor!