Doctor Who head honcho Steven Moffat has dismissed rumours that the planned Who movie will be a drastic re-imagining of the TV series.

Taking to Twitter this morning, the writer said: “To clarify: any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and certainly NOT be a Hollywood reboot.”

His words come a fortnight after Harry Potter director David Yates told Variety that he was in line to direct a film based on the popular science fiction series, which would see him “start from scratch” on a “radical transformation” of the programme.

Moffat contextualised Yates’ remark in another tweet, saying: “David Yates, great director, was speaking off the cuff, on a red carpet.”

In a statement issued to a national newspaper, Moffat said that Doctor Who is “a vitally important BBC brand with a huge international audience” and one which “not even Hollywood can start from scratch”.

The producer also revealed that as yet “there simply are no developed plans for a Doctor Who movie at the moment” but “if and when the movie happens it will need to star television's Doctor Who - and there's only ever one of those at a time.

"Whatever happens, the BBC and BBC Worldwide will work together to ensure that we don't just get a movie, we get the movie that everyone wants," he added.