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New details revealed about AMC's re-imagined The Prisoner
Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel (center) star in AMC's new The Prisoner.
Many recall The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan's stylish 1967 British series, a cult hit about a man trapped for unknown reasons in a picturesque town called The Village and identified only as Number Six. He can't figure out why he's there or how to escape.
American Movie Classics has shot a six-hour miniseries re-imagining of The Prisoner for modern-day audiences. One of the biggest changes in this re-imagining is that Six is now American, played by Jim Caviezel.
"I don't think it makes any difference," director Nick Hurran said in a press conference Jan. 8 in Universal City, Calif. "It's a mixed-nationality cast. It's a very global Village. I think we accept that now. We're so used to a society being of every culture, every race, that it would have been quite parochial to go and do a British thing."
Patrick McGoohan (left) created and starred in the original Prisoner.
This Village is set in the middle of a desert, as opposed to the seaside Village of the original. "Epic is absolutely the right word," Hurran said. "The vistas that this prison gives, setting it in the Namibian desert or the nonspecific desert that we don't know where it is, the character Six runs away to get free, to escape, and just keeps running and keeps running, and there is more sand than I have ever seen in my life. It gets to places you never knew you had."
The desert turned out to be a production nuisance when the filmmakers had to re-create location shoots in Namibia. The majority of production was based in Cape Town, South Africa. "My overriding memory of this production is sand, no matter where we were," Hurran said. "It returned, even in South Africa, when we had to try and re-create some locations to make them look like they were still in the Village. We needed to import sand and carefully, painstakingly lay it across the streets of Cape Town. Unfortunately, Cape Town's very windy, and the wind certainly blew and blew all of the carefully laid sand about 100 meters into front yards and people's letterboxes. So sand remained with us forever."
Die-hard fans of the original Prisoner will notice some familiar tidbits. "There are a number of, of course, homages that the keen eye will see in what's said and what's worn, in pieces of architecture," Hurran said. "Of course, there are a number of salutes that we made to the fantastic piece that was created. I think it would be a shame to take it to the next generation and not acknowledge what an extraordinary piece of work that was. [It's] enigmatic, I think slightly less surreal, but it is as bizarre, in a good way."
The Prisoner airs in November on AMC.
By Marty B. at 3:37 PM ON 01/09/09
I dunno if the Prisoners' all that obscure. It was one of the first series the Sci Fi channel ran. The Simpsons thought it was worthy of an homage. Heck, Patrick McGoohan's role in it gets referenced off hand in the mainstream romantic comedy, "High Fidelity."
Glad this re-imagining or sequel or whatever it is made The Wire's radar.
By Mandy at 4:25 PM ON 01/09/09
I was going to say the same thing. What sort of hack writers is Scifi Wire using that they think The Prisoner is obscure? It aired in rerun on PBS up until a few years ago. Simpsons did a spoof of it and other fairly well known science fiction horror movies and shows have referenced it. Does no one research these things anymore? I'm actually insulted and I wasn't even alive in the sixties!
And if the nationality of the hero doesn't make a difference why bother changing it? Also desert? Why? The creepiest thing about The Prisoner was that the village was on a remote island. This is a disaster. What's next the big metaphorical climatic reveal will be that Number 1 is a monkey ala Tim Burton's botched re-imagining of Planet of the Apes. I love Tim Burton but that was a disaster.
By Mandy at 4:27 PM ON 01/09/09
I was going to say the same thing. What sort of hack writers is Scifi Wire using that they think The Prisoner is obscure? It aired in rerun on PBS up until a few years ago. Simpsons did a spoof of it and other fairly well known science fiction and horror movies and shows have referenced it. Does no one research these things anymore? The writer of this article never heard of it so they assumed it was obscure. I'm actually insulted and I wasn't even alive in the sixties!
And if the nationality of the hero doesn't make a difference why bother changing it? Also desert? Why? The creepiest thing about The Prisoner was that the village was on a remote island. This is a disaster. What's next the big metaphorical climatic reveal will be that Number 1 is a monkey ala Tim Burton's botched re-imagining of Planet of the Apes. I love Tim Burton but that was a disaster.
By Kevin at 7:01 PM ON 01/09/09
Number One did wear a monkey mask in the original series, Mandy. Just puttin' that out there.
By SCI FI Wire at 7:17 PM ON 01/09/09
You're right, of course; The Prisoner's not obscure at all. We've fixed the story.
By CML at 9:18 PM ON 01/09/09
It was a summer replacement series in the 1960s 0n CBS also. Its not obscure.
By HMR_in_SV at 11:51 PM ON 01/09/09
The original series was a sequel to McGoohan's spy series "Secret Agent". Too bad, they don't do a prequel movie to set up the situation.
By Mandy at 11:53 PM ON 01/09/09
Thank you very much. I am sorry about coming off rude before but a fan of The Prisoner pointed out the article to me and I was a little surprised that I was one of the 'rare' who had 'even heard of' The Prisoner.
By Michael X Maelstrom at 1:38 AM ON 01/10/09
imo The Prisoner is only the single greatest television series in the history of television.
No hyperbole intended. That's my honest view.
Still "Cult" (small but ardent hardcore fanbase) is probably more accurate than "obscure".
Most of the mainstream masses (read: the majority) haven't seen The Prisoner, though they probably have heard tell of it, but those that have seen it, know it to be a masterpiece of television.
imo you can't top the original Prisoner, it's literally impossible, even without seeing it, the logic is inescapable.
ie. even if the re-make were a masterpiece, the fact that the original came first and is a masterpiece, will supersede (even) a masterpiece re-make.
But I'm looking forward to it.
Be Seeing You.
mXm
By Network Geek at 1:53 PM ON 01/12/09
Obscure? Really? Either I live submerged in a strange sub-culture or obscure has taken on an entirely different meaning. Considering how many pop culture references I see to the Prisoner, in one form or another, I really don't think it's all that obscure at all. Granted, the hardcore fan base may be a little more cultish about it than the mainstream, but that hardly makes the Prisoner itself obscure. After all, the entire series has been available on DVD for years now!
By Thom at 3:36 PM ON 01/14/09
Of course, science fiction fans don't consider the original series to be "obscure." However, it is most certainly obscure to the majority of Americans who are not science fiction fans.
I've owned the original series on VHS since the late 1980s, but I can assure you my wife would have no idea what I'm talking about if I brought up THE PRISONER--nor would 90 percent of the people I work with.
It all depends on who your audience is and in what context you're calling something "obscure."
Visit mobile.scifi.com/wire on your mobile device.
Thom:
Of course, science fiction fans don't consider the original series to be "obscure." However, it is most certainly o...More »