While we're anxiously -- and optimistically -- awaiting the AMC remake of the classic Patrick McGoohan spy series The Prisoner, filmmaker Christopher Nolan has abandoned a big screen version of The Prisoner. Nolan reportedly will concentrate instead on a third Batman movie.
Producer Barry Mendel claims that even with Nolan, the chances of a big screen Prisoner was contingent on the success of the AMC series. Now that Nolan's opted out, the film is in even more jeopardy.
Frankly, I'm not sure there needs to be big screen movie as well as the AMC series. The original show was so iconic, can we really hope that two adaptations will capture the genius of Patrick McGoohan's show? As John posted recently, the AMC version already may be veering too far from the original for some fans. We'll have to wait for AMC to unveil the show later this year and reserve judgment till then.
According to Mendel, the script that Nolan developed -- before departing -- by David and Janet Peoples is a definite re-imagining of the McGoohan series. However, I have major doubts about what they've done when Mendel compares it -- favorably! -- to The Avengers, the horrendous Sean Connery/Uma Thurman/Ralph Fiennes movie version.
"If you think of The Avengers, that wasn't a commercially successful film, but it was very much in the spirit of the original show. This looks and feels so different that the tenants of the show are apparent, but the execution of it is so different that I think it is unrecognizable."
I'm sorry, but if it's unrecognizable, is it still The Prisoner at all? It does make you wonder what they're thinking, doesn't it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-19-2009 @ 4:46PM
C.J. said...
I would rather have this new 'Prisoner' veer away from the original. The original, of course, is the granddaddy of several sci-fi mystique shows, including 'The X-Files,' 'Alias,' and 'Lost.'
But it wasn't perfect. At times, it was too emotionally cold (aside from being irate, does Number 6 have any feelings at all?) and too repetitive (what's going to happen this week? Oh, he's going to try a new way to escape the Village). Let's see what a fresh, modern TV-writing sensibility can do to this iconic and venerable concept, no?
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8-19-2009 @ 5:04PM
Jeff said...
You will never be able to match The Prisoner. It was the perfect show for its time and age.
It wouldn't work in its original format today. They have to change the idea of conformity, particularly to an American audience. The surburbia in the desert is a great analogy. It's more recognizable in our every day lives than the original would be. The Prisoner used the same kinds of things for its time and place.
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8-19-2009 @ 11:38PM
nytheatreguy said...
I also wish Nolan would set his sights on a remake of "The Avengers," the classic 60s spy series starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. If anything, maybe it could make up for the terrible film we got back in the 90s starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman. Long live John Steed and Emma Peel!!
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8-20-2009 @ 5:23AM
Moor Larkin said...
The tenants of the show are the villagers presumably.
I wonder what the tenets of any new show will be? Retreading some Sixties cliches, or a meditation upon the tension between the need for individual freedom and the requirements of a cohesive society?
One can imagine poor Mr. Nolan thinking deeply about all this, seeing the budgets, and concluding: "Hell.......... Let's do another Batman" ... :-)))
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