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Prisoner remake to air in November on AMC

Any trailer over two minutes long is bound to have spoilers, so I tend to stay away from those...

AMC has been running both the original series and a shorter behind-the-scenes featurette on their video on demand service leading up to the new series...
 
Yeah, I'll just as soon avoid that trailer.

I am honestly curious to see how this goes. It's got a slim chance in my mind of actually being decent.
 
barnaclelapse said:
Yeah, I'll just as soon avoid that trailer.

I am honestly curious to see how this goes. It's got a slim chance in my mind of actually being decent.
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Well, AMC hit it out of the park with Mad Men, so I'm willing to be cautiously optimistic. Also, The Prisoner isn't just a fantastic series, it's the sort of series whose political implications could easily translate into a remake. Back then it's the Cold War, today, War on Terror. Conceptually it writes itself.

Which is to say, on paper, remaking The Prisoner is a better idea than remaking Battlestar Galactica. So yeah, I'm willing to give this a try.
 
The mini-series looks intriguing, but one aspect that looks like something of a let-down to me is the casting of Jim Caviezel as Number 6. Caviezel is certainly talented enough, but one of the things that was so entertaining about the original series was McGoohan's sometimes manic performance. There were moments when he seemed just as off his rocker as anything else in The Village, and even in the lesser episodes of the show, he was always fun to watch.
 
Ceridwen said:
The mini-series looks intriguing, but one aspect that looks like something of a let-down to me is the casting of Jim Caviezel as Number 6. Caviezel is certainly talented enough, but one of the things that was so entertaining about the original series was McGoohan's sometimes manic performance. There were moments when he seemed just as off his rocker as anything else in The Village, and even in the lesser episodes of the show, he was always fun to watch.
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I agree, however looking at the trailer I think part of the reimagining is that it'll be Number Two - Ian McKellen - who will be handling the quirkiness factor. That's probably a good thing because we don't really want someone doing a McGoohan impersonation anyway.

I've seen enough of the trailer to tell that I think this hits a lot of the right notes. And I have a theory that I won't mention here, but if it pans out this will be something to see, indeed.

I'd actually have lower expectations if this was being made by a mainstream network or Syfy or even HBO. But this is AMC, and as noted they're raking up the awards for stuff like Mad Men, and they also helped make the BBC's Hustle series a reality. I also like the fact that I'm not sensing any sort of "yeah we know the original sucks, so we're doing it better" attitude which I have often come across with regards to reimaginings and remakes (including to a degree BSG). The original series in this case is held in very high esteem, and I think that's raising the bar for this remake. And while 6 hours is a lot less than the original's 17, it's a lot better than 100-120 minutes which is what the often-threatened theatrical film would have had to tell the story. And it's one more than Torchwood: Children of Earth, which was mind-blowing.

I guess we'll find out in a couple of months how things turn out. If nothing else, it's getting the original series into the public eye again, including a completely unexpected (and, if you believe some technophiles, supposedly impossible) Blu-Ray release.

Alex
 
I'm looking forward to this, although Caviezel definitely has big shoes to fill. McGoohan's performance in the original was just so...insane. It looks like Caviezel went in a far different direction, which is probably for the best, but let's see if it works.
 
23skidoo said:
And while 6 hours is a lot less than the original's 17...
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To be fair, the original was only supposed to be 7 hours. This would have included "Arrival," "Dance of the Dead," "Free For All," "Checkmate," "The Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and "Fall Out." Fortunately, it went on a bit longer than that, since some of my favorites are not in that number ("The Schizoid Man" especially) and some I consider weaker are (something about "Dance of the Dead" never really clicked with me, for example).

If nothing else, it's getting the original series into the public eye again, including a completely unexpected (and, if you believe some technophiles, supposedly impossible) Blu-Ray release.
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I can't wait to see this. Why is it supposedly impossible, though?
 
Ceridwen said:
To be fair, the original was only supposed to be 7 hours. This would have included "Arrival," "Dance of the Dead," "Free For All," "Checkmate," "The Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and "Fall Out." Fortunately, it went on a bit longer than that, since some of my favorites are not in that number ("The Schizoid Man" especially) and some I consider weaker are (something about "Dance of the Dead" never really clicked with me, for example).
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That is very true, and I'm glad you brought this up. So in some respects the new series could, theoretically be even closer to McGoohan's original vision. I remember reading in one of the books on the show that ITC even wanted to do a second season in which Number 6 basically returned to being a secret agent, only doing missions on behalf of the Village (the Do Not Forsake Me episode was a trial run of this idea).

If nothing else, it's getting the original series into the public eye again, including a completely unexpected (and, if you believe some technophiles, supposedly impossible) Blu-Ray release.
Click to expand...

I can't wait to see this. Why is it supposedly impossible, though?
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This relates to a recurring debate over whether old TV shows can be released in high-definition without essentially having everything replaced with CG. This relates to the Trek Remastered controversy, where the attitude seemed to be the only way for TOS to ever be released in high-def would be to redo all the special effects and music tracks ... yet then Paramount went and put the original, virtually unaltered episodes on the new BluRay sets, in HD.

With The Prisoner I believe it's even more unexpected because -- and somebody correct me because my facts may be wrong -- I believe it was shot in 16-mm. And I've been told to my face that it's physically impossible to remaster 16-mm to High def (which is one reason why no one's holding their breath at ever seeing the original The Avengers or early Doctor Who on Blu-Ray - though the introduction of the VidFire remastering process might have recitified this situation to a degree, reducing the reliance on original kinescopes and 16mm film transfer of videotaped episodes). Maybe The Prisoner was shot in 32-mm, though. I'm pretty sure it was 16, though. It's one reason why the A&E DVDs look less than pristine.

DarkHorizon said:
Bob The Skutter said:
Anyone heard when this will be on ITV? I hope it's not too far behind the US broadcast.
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There's a feature in SFX this month - it says 2010 for UK broadcast.
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Now folks in the UK will know how us folks in Canada and US feel when our broadcasters drag their feet in showing things like Doctor Who and Merlin.

That said, it's pretty stupid of ITV to do this considering its key demographic will just download the thing a few days after it airs on AMC. I continue to be amazed that broadcasters still think its 1995 and that viewers are willing to wait months, years even, for shows to be broadcast after they've aired in one part of the world.

With any luck the SFX article will prove to have outdated info and ITV will follow BBC America's lead with Children of Earth and show The Prisoner around the same time or within a few weeks (which is more reasonable a wait than a few months) as the US broadcaster.

Alex
 
^We've always known what it feels like, until recently we've had to wait months for all American shows to air here.
 
23skidoo said:
This relates to a recurring debate over whether old TV shows can be released in high-definition without essentially having everything replaced with CG. This relates to the Trek Remastered controversy, where the attitude seemed to be the only way for TOS to ever be released in high-def would be to redo all the special effects and music tracks ... yet then Paramount went and put the original, virtually unaltered episodes on the new BluRay sets, in HD.
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As far as I know, and from what I've seen, The Prisoner (1967) was shot on 35mm, not 16mm. IMDB supports the idea that it was shot and edited on 35mm. As for re-creating the visual effects, as was done for TOS, I'm not sure The Prisoner had many (or any) visual effects that would need to be redone for an HD version. Most of it seemed to be practical to me, though I've only seen the series once.

As for the debate over TOS, you're vastly oversimplifying the issue, but much of the 'controvery' is over minutia that most people couldn't give a damn about.
 
23skidoo said:
Ceridwen said:
To be fair, the original was only supposed to be 7 hours. This would have included "Arrival," "Dance of the Dead," "Free For All," "Checkmate," "The Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and "Fall Out." Fortunately, it went on a bit longer than that, since some of my favorites are not in that number ("The Schizoid Man" especially) and some I consider weaker are (something about "Dance of the Dead" never really clicked with me, for example).
Click to expand...

That is very true, and I'm glad you brought this up. So in some respects the new series could, theoretically be even closer to McGoohan's original vision. I remember reading in one of the books on the show that ITC even wanted to do a second season in which Number 6 basically returned to being a secret agent, only doing missions on behalf of the Village (the Do Not Forsake Me episode was a trial run of this idea).
Click to expand...
Truthfully, even McGoohan realized there were only so many stories that could be told in the Village. The alternative would have been to do a series of "formula" episodes in which Number Six always comes this close to escaping, but always winds up back in the Village in the end...
 
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Ceridwen said:
The mini-series looks intriguing, but one aspect that looks like something of a let-down to me is the casting of Jim Caviezel as Number 6. Caviezel is certainly talented enough, but one of the things that was so entertaining about the original series was McGoohan's sometimes manic performance. There were moments when he seemed just as off his rocker as anything else in The Village, and even in the lesser episodes of the show, he was always fun to watch.
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Don't you think it would have been fun to cast Timothy Dalton?

John
 
Maybe Caviezel's Number Six is very different than McGoohan's. Maybe the spin on this new series isn't so much individual versus society but putting the individual over society (i.e., "the needs of the one over the needs of the many?").
 
23skidoo said:
This relates to a recurring debate over whether old TV shows can be released in high-definition without essentially having everything replaced with CG. This relates to the Trek Remastered controversy, where the attitude seemed to be the only way for TOS to ever be released in high-def would be to redo all the special effects and music tracks ... yet then Paramount went and put the original, virtually unaltered episodes on the new BluRay sets, in HD.
Click to expand...
The issue with Star Trek was that, due to the multi-pass processing on the visual effects, any imperfections and grain in the film were multiplied and exaggerated. Cleaning those shots up would have been cost prohibitive, if not impossible, and the drop in quality between live photography and visual effects is extremely noticeable.

As for going from 16mm to HD, I'd expect it's fully possible, but expect to see a LOT of grain reduction at play. Assuming that's what The Prisoner was shot in, Patrick McGoohan will look like a character from a Robert Zemeckis film by the time they're done. :p

jadcox@mindspring.com said:
Don't you think it would have been fun to cast Timothy Dalton?
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Ooooh, fun! Casting younger, I think that Christopher Eccleston could be both eccentric and dangerous (somewhere between his Doctor and his character in 28 Days Later).

Of course, I imagine this Number Six is quite a different character altogether (the very spoilerific trailer doesn't even suggest he's a spy), and I'd guess Caviezel is well cast for the part.
 
^I believe Christopher Eccleston was cast as Number 6 previously, but then Sky pulled out and the project was sidelined until ITV came in and AMC apparently decided the needed an American Number 6.
 
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