The Prisoner To Be Remade On U.K. TV

An anonymous reader writes "Various UK news sites are reporting that Sky One is to commission a remake of the cult 60s UK TV series, The Prisoner. See u.tv and This is London." From the This Is London story: "The series, which made its debut 1967, is today credited by its fans as being ahead of its time. Featuring McGoohan as a former secret agent trapped in an isolated seaside village, it was shown in more than 60 countries. The new version will not be placed in the original setting, the north Wales village of Portmeirion, or have the arty, 'pop' feel of the original, according to the magazine Broadcast. Damien Timmer, who has been lined up to executive produce the show, told the television and radio industry magazine that the new series 'takes liberties with the original'."

Comments

Why do we need a remake?

[ericdano]

Why do we constantly need a remake of everything? Battlestar Galactica is about the only good remake to come in a long line of them.

I can see maybe another series LIKE the Prisoner, but not a complete remake of the series. The series is a classic. The way it uses music, and of course the mannerisms of No. 6.....

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[negative3]

And what exactly do they mean by "take liberties with the original." That is probably code for "when we got done with this bitch it will be damn near unrecognizable."

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[ericdano]

Seriously. The Prisoner is a classic. It would be like remaking Citizen Kane. Of course, they did remake Psycho.......another classic. And look at the results there. Terrible remake.

A petition should be started to prevent this remake from happening.

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[Doktor Memory]

The important difference is that the original Battlestar Galactica was very, very, very, very bad. Not good. Terrible, in fact. Unwatchable. Occasionally downright embarrassing. Anyone who has fond memories of the original Galactica probably last watched it as a hyperactive 7-year-old. Changing the original series could only improve it.

The Prisoner, to put it mildly, does not suffer from this problem.

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[sg3000]

> Seriously. The Prisoner is a classic.

Agreed! The Prisoner (minus the last two incomprehensible and silly episodes) was an incredible show. I remember it came on one night late on PBS (after Red Dwarf), and I recognized it from the description on The Straight Dope.

We were all set to make fun of it (hey, look! a campy 1960s era show!), but we quickly became engrossed in the plot (it was one of the better episodes -- The Schizoid Man). I was actually quite surprised how much I enjoyed it.

I ended up buying the A&E boxed set, and I was amazed at McGoohan's understanding of how society tries to mold its citizens. Plus the whole "spy versus spy" part was an intriguing bonus (particularly "Hammer and Anvil").

This is a show that doesn't need to be remade. Today, they'd have to cut it in half, make Number 6 run around shooting people with a machine gun, and have a hooter babe leading woman.

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[Doktor Memory]

Mmmmph. I won't make a blanket defense of "Fall Out" -- it's certainly not flawless, and doesn't necessarily hold up that well today -- but I tend to think of its flaws as artifacts of its era, rather than as outright artistic failures.

The series always wavered in between straight-up cold war spy thriller and existential parable of individuality and liberty; I can't fault McGoohan for coming down hard on the latter side for the finale, even if it did skirt the edge of "psychadelic nonsense" as a result. If he'd gone the other way, we'd probably barely remember the show at all. ("Aha, Number Two is... A Soviet agent!" Snore.)

And even at its worst, The Prisoner had neither a Space Disco nor a Cute Robot Dog...

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[crucini]

For all the political grandstanding people are putting in shows these days, I seriously doubt that a remake would be able to maintain enough aloofness as to preserve an elusive point.

Exactly. McGoohan was so zealously independent and iconoclastic that The Prisoner remains accessible to any individual feeling at odds with a totalist environment, whether that environment is liberal, conservative commercial or whatever. The TV makers of today couldn't resist mixing in their dislike of Bush, Christians, etc. That would prevent the new show from enjoying the wide-ranging and long-lasting appeal of the old.

Of course there's also the inevitable addition of sex, sticky sentimentality, bogus ethical dilemmas, and cheap laffs.

Re:Why do we need a remake?

[Profane MuthaFucka]

You missed a huge reason why the Prisoner was so shocking. The last two episodes were a bare-naked call for violent overthrow of the government. If that didn't leave an impression on you, but the rest of the series did, then I wonder what else in life and the literary and performance arts you are missing.

Sixth post

[AEton]

I am number six... ....wait, who is number one?

Re:Sixth post

[Johnny Mnemonic]

You are #827305. I am the new #176043.

Will the new Prisoner have a /. episode, where the prisioner has a plan for escape, but it invovles the use of Windows so he's modded to -1 and no one hears about it?

But seriously--this is an interesting time for this to be discussed. I believe it comes from a desire to challenge the group-mind attitude that has led to our current state of politics, just as the first one did. Hopefully the massive suckage of this remake won't obscure that message, but that'll be pretty hard to do.

I'm not a number!

[__aaclcg7560]

Standby for Version 2.0 of The Prisoner. Or is that Version 6.1? Hmmm...

Gah.

[solios]

The Prisoner is absolutely one of my favorite shows of all time. I really don't see why a remake is necessary - the original was just fine, thank you. If we're talking "liberties" I can only assume it'll be in the "sex sells" department as opposed to the allegory department, or the Iconic Representation department.

Sorry, I just don't see The Prisoner working without McGoohan or that 60s Bond-esque Secret Agent flavor.

Re:Gah.

[kfg]

I really don't see why a remake is necessary. . .

Because the "creative" people don't actually have any "ideas."

KFG

Wrong substance

[$RANDOMLUSER]

> The new version will not...have the arty, 'pop' feel of the original...

That wasn't pop, it was lysergic acid diethylamide.

Please recreate that sense of disorientation

[G4from128k]

The Prisoner was great because of the disorienting plot lines and characters - it was seldom clear why #6 was there, what they wanted him to do, or how they were manipulating him. Half the time he seemed to be getting away with some little bit of rebellion only to find that he was doing exactly what they wanted him to do.

I can understand that they may not be able to reuse the old setting, but I hope that they can recreate some place for the "Prison" that has a similar feel of idyllic ordinariness to contrast with the surreal psychological drama.

Possible location

[isny]

Guantanemo Bay.

"takes liberties with the original"

[Dystopian Rebel]

Poll: For the new Prisoner series, which of the following liberties is most likely to be taken?

a) 80% of the production budget will be for explosions
b) 80% of the production will be for cleavage
c) the Lotus Seven that McGoohan drove will be replaced by a Toyota Echo
d) the Rover balloon will have advertizing pasted all over it
e) Adam Sandler in the main role

Uh, what happened to the movie?

[PhantomHarlock]

There was going to be a Prisoner movie, did it go away? There's no mention of it in IMDB anymore even. Here's something at least: http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hp&cf=prev&id=18084 05507

Re:Will this one make sense?

[Scrameustache]

the original fun will be downright annoying to the reality-tv generation.

Sweet! Payback.

Translation for US audiences:

[MsGeek]

Sky = Fox.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Because we ran out of ideas and need the money

[toxic666]

Was that even a serious question? Whenever the "entertainment factory" runs out of ideas and needs to get something in front of an audience, they go for a remake. Sadly, they've chosen the culmination of a great actor's TV spy incarnation to mistranslate this time.

Check into the Danger Man -- First Season (1960-1961) and Secret Agent -- aka Danger Man (1964-1966) series if you like The Prisoner. There is a lot of interesting context. McGoohan was the first choice for James Bond in Dr. No based upon the cancelled, original half-hour series. As the spy-genre took hold, the character was modified and came back in the Secret Agent series (you'll recognize the theme song from the Wal-Mart "Roll-Back Man"). That was cancelled after two seasons and then McGoohan went on to make The Prisoner. Agent John Drake was the antithesis of the Hollywood spy-genre because it relies on plot instead of sex and violence.

The Prisoner was the result of the evolution of a concept that had (arguably) failed twice before. McGoohan just managed to get it better each time.

And now the entertainment industry wants to remake something a real talent took to its logical (??!!) conclusion almost 40 years ago. They don't have the vision to evolve the concept, so they will goose it for a couple bucks.

How to make a mockery of the Prisoner

[crucini]

In case the producers of the new show are reading, here are my suggestions:

1. Add a sultry female co-star, #7. Initially, she and #6 suspect each other of being spies for #2. Develop inevitable romantic plot. She tends to bail out #6 when he screws up his plans. Optionally, wrap in black leather.
   
2. Use monumental, fascist-inspired sets with towering spires, grim tunnels and riveted doors. Light dramatically. Every footstep must echo loudly and every slamming door must sound like a dumpster being dropped by the garbage truck.
   
3. Make each #2 a caricature of utter, unsympathetic evil, ala Voldemort in Harry Potter. Optionally, monsterize #2's face with latex appliances.
   
4. Replace Rover with a hi-tech CGI robot that floats around firing laser beams.
   
5. Highlight #6's human side via friendships with other inmates. Feature sticky scenes of sentiment in which #6 exchanges a manly hug with his buddy before one of them heads off to near-certain death.
   
6. Use the show as a megaphone for the political issue du jour. Frex, have #2 refuse to sign the Kyoto treaty, whereupon the island becomes choked with pollution until #6 persuads him to sign. Of course, there must be a "vote fraud" episode.
   
7. Add montages with hip-hop and rock.
   
8. Replace the ironic distance of McGoohan with someone more meaty, sweaty, earthy and hunky. Let him bellow from the diaphragm, "Like, it's so lame being a number! I'm an individual!".