Prisoner Remake: Caviezel, McKellen in Africa
Prisoner Fans Anticipate Worldwide Premiere in 2009
Oct 16, 2008
The cast – including Jim Caviezel as Number Six, Ian McKellen as Number Two and Ruth Wilson as Number 313 – is now moving into studios in Cape Town for the final stages of the shoot.
The worldwide community of Prisoner devotees has been buzzing with internet gossip in anticipation of this ‘reinterpretation’ of the classic ITV show, which originally starred and was co-created by Patrick McGoohan.
'The Prisoner Got It All Right'
‘It’s 40 years since the original,’ says Roger Langley, author of a new McGoohan biography and lifelong Prisoner fan. ‘It’s time to bring the concepts into the modern world and see how many of the forecasts McGoohan was making back then have come true. In the first series they had mobile phones, CCTV, computers and radar, and many things that didn’t really exist. It’s quite incredible how The Prisoner got it all right.’
McGoohan’s 17-episode show hit British screens in 1967. It was a stylish and compelling mystery and wowed audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. The story of the enigmatic Number Six imprisoned in a beautiful village (Portmeirion in Wales) was a revelation with its surreal bouncing balloon guards, school uniform clothes and stunning title sequence – ‘I am not a number. I am a free man!’
Sky One was linked with a remake in 2006 but this June it emerged that ITV had joined American network AMC, makers of Mad Men, to revive The Prisoner.
Powerful Cast
They’ve assembled a powerful cast in Caviezel (The Passion of Christ, The Thin Red Line), McKellen (star of the Shakespearean stage and big-screen epics such as Lord of the Rings) and Wilson (Bafta-nominated for Jane Eyre on BBC1).
Hayley Atwell, currently on the big screen in Brideshead Revisited, Lennie James, of cult CBS show Jericho, and Jamie Campbell-Bower, recently seen in Rocknrolla, also feature.
The new six-part mini-series seems to have a lot of action scenes, with Swakopmund, a garish resort that looks an intriguing modern stand-in for Portmeirion, echoing to explosions caused by the special-effects team.
Brainless Remake?
This makes the purists worry that it could turn out to be a brainless remake. ‘One of our concerns,’ Langley says, ‘is that there will be a need to entertain today’s audiences with lots of action because subtlety and The Prisoner’s more philosophical concepts would be a turn-off. Will it do justice to The Prisoner or will it be something entirely different?’
The series is written by Bill Gallagher, whose past credits include Clocking Off and Lark Rise to Candleford for British television.
'Absolutely Remarkable' – McKellen
McKellen has said of his script, ‘Bill Gallagher’s new version of The Prisoner is an enthralling commentary on modern culture. It is witty, intelligent and disturbing. These scripts are some of the best I’ve ever read for TV, absolutely remarkable.’
Jim Caviezel says, ‘It’s allegorical to our time, as the old Prisoner was to the Cold War.’
Ruth Wilson has been quoted as saying that the show is very ambiguous. Her mysterious character will apparently provide the love interest.
Ending on a Cliffhanger?
The original’s baffling ending caused uproar with Sixties’ audiences because it refused to resolve the plot – where was the village, who was Number One, who was Number Six, does Six escape?
‘My guess is the new version will end on a cliffhanger and if it’s popular they’ll come back with another mini-series,’ says Langley.
And what of the original Number Six? 'Patrick McGoohan's taken himself away from it all now,' Langley says. 'He has a nice, peaceful existence in California. He's 80, a great-grandfather and it's not so easy to be a rebel now.'
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