A new Prisoner

We don’t cover a lot of TV news, but this merits mention due to the talent involved, and because everyone should be exposed to the original.

AMC and ITV are making a new version of the brilliant British late-60s TV show THE PRISONER, with Jim Caviezel (THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST) stepping into the title role made famous by the wonderfully brusque Patrick McGoohan. Sir Ian McKellan will co-star (as Number Two) in the project, which will will attempt to condense the original cerebral 17-episode run into a six part miniseries.

The ingenious sci-fi mindjob involved a secret agent who, upon handing in his resignation, is abducted and relocated to a strange isolated township known as “the Village”. Referred to only as “Number 6”, he’s given a house and some smart threads, and then gets chased by big white bouncing spheres as he tries to figure out just what the hell he’s doing there, never receiving any satisfactory answers.

An updated PRISONER has been discussed/threatened for years by various parties, but this new version will reportedly arrive in 2009 and, while paying homage to the original, “will reflect 21st-century stressors such as constant surveillance and the conflict between liberty and security.”