First Look Behind The Scenes Of The Prisoner Remake

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:30:00 PDT

A new video of the first table read for AMC's remake of 60's imprisoned-spy series The Prisoner shows the cast and crew psyching themselves up to play the Villagers. The most endearing thing is hearing nervous Jim Caviezel (playing the main character Number 6) and Ian McKellen (who plays the evil Number 2) both talk about their anxiety about revamping one of television's few great philosophical/psychological thrillers. Click through for the video.

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I think everyone on the cast and crew seems most excited about the modern-day twist. Producer Trevor Hopkins explains that Bill Gallagher's script doesn't try to copy the original show, which is probably a good thing. Instead the new version is more about post 9/11 security issues.

It's the first time our post-9/11 anxieties have been merged with a tripped-out 1960s style, so it'll be interesting to see how it meshes. I'm excited to see how they'll pump the inhabitants of the Village for information, Prisoner-style, yet remain true to modern times.

But even more intriguing is the pairing of Jim Caviezel as Number 6 and Ian McKellen as the authority figure Number 2. Caviezel replaces Patrick McGoohan's defiance with an air of "Holy crap, I'm confused — what's going on? I'm not a number." And McKellen is just a first class actor all the way. Let the whacked-out battle of wits commence.

[AMC]

AMC Brings Prisoner Back To The Village

Graeme McMillan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:20:00 PDT

Thirty years after Leo McKern vacated the role, it's time to meet the new Number Two. AMC is bringing back Patrick McGoohan's classic sixties paranoiafest The Prisoner with Jim "Passion of the Christ" Caviezel taking over the role of the secret agent who finds that there's no such thing as an easy way out of the intelligence game.

The new version of the series - co-produced by ITV in the UK, which gave us the original show - will be a six-hour miniseries that reboots the concept of Caviezel's nameless secret agent being kidnapped to the mysterious "Village," where people are known only by numbers and everyone is out to find out what secrets everyone else is hiding. Sir Ian McKellen has signed on to play main badguy Number Two for the entire run, replacing the revolving "Number Two of The Week" guest-slot of the original show.

The show is expected to premiere midway through next year.

Ian McKellen to lead in ITV's The Prisoner remake [The Guardian]

io9: number two

First Look Behind The Scenes Of The Prisoner Remake

AMC Brings Prisoner Back To The Village