The Prisoner Remake: Be seeing you?
AMC will offer their remake of 1967′s The Prisoner, Sunday night, starring Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel. The original series, created by Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein, and starring McGoohan, broke a lot of molds when it debuted on the BBC. Only 17 episodes, the show made viewers rethink what they’d expect from a television drama. The Prisoner helped pave the way for shows like Lost and Fringe with blurred edges between police procedural, science fiction, and suspense thriller. Clever, memorable phrases and low key, low budget, high drama effects were the name of the game in The Village.
I have fond memories of watching The Prisoner reruns with my Dad, so I am very curious to see the changes they’ve made, in their effort to contemporize the story. In the ’60′s, McGoohan and his crew has a tense political atmosphere to play off; paranoia due to shifts in the powers that be around the world; and concerns about personal rights and public demands of loyalty and patriotism. When you strip away the 1960′s markers, the underlying motivations stand firm in today’s world, as well. This may be the best time to attempt a retelling of this story.
For the details on the new mini series, AMC has put together a very informative, entertaining website. There’s even an online graphic novel and a blog by Ian McKellen (#2). The best gift from AMC, in my opinion, was the link to a collection of all 17 episodes of the original show. For old fans and people curious about the origins of the story, this was a true gem. For those who just want a quickie, to get current before the first episode of the new show, they put together “Prisoner-in-a-minute” clips for each of the episodes, so you can get the run down on #2, #6, The Village and the ominous bubble, Rover, in under a half hour.
I don’t know if this will be one of the best television remakes in a long time, or something that we’ll be lamenting for years to come. My curiosity and fond memories of the original insure that I’ll be tuning in, Sunday night. I have a few guesses about their manipulation of the story to make it their own, but I can’t reveal them, not yet…that would be telling.
When: Sunday 11/15/09-11/18/09 8pm EST
Where: AMC – check your local listings for your AMC channel
Who: Ian McKellen (#2), James Caviezel (#6), Ruth Wilson (#313), Hayley Atwell (Lucy), Lennie James (#147),James Campbell (#11-12)
Hi – Fantastic site you have here, I really like your writing style. Very distinctive and concise. On a lot of blogs people just drone on and on, but not you – very nice. Keep up the great work! I really like reading sites about The Prisoner. It was such a classic show. Your site is one of the best. I don’t have time to read everything here right now, I found this site while I was looking for something else on Bing, but I’ve bookmarked your homepage and will check back soon to see the latest news. I have started a site with a few clips from both the original series and some previews of the remake. Please take a look at my site – it is at http://www.NoManIsJustANumber.com – and let me know what you think of it. Thank you again for a really well-done web site. Be seeing you.
This was cool to read, thanks.