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We Have Information!! Information!! Information!! Ian McKellen Is The New Number 2 In AMC’s PRISONER Remake!!
I am – Hercules!!
Six Of One, the official appreciation society for the amazing old British TV series “The Prisoner,” had this scoop way back on June 6: Ian McKellen will star as Number Two opposite Jim Caviezel’s Number Six in an upcoming ITV/AMC miniseries remake.
Other details from Six of One confirmed by this story in Tuesday’s Variety:
* Six episodes will be produced;
* It airs next year.
Not confirmed by the Variety story:
* Shooting starts the first week of August;
* It shoots on location in Namibia and South Africa.
Variety does reveal the project’s writer is Bill Gallagher, who penned the BBC’s “Conviction.”
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I bet. I bet I am. I know I am. I know it!
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I never saw the original Prisoner. But I loved Caviezel in the Count of Montecristo and, natch, I'm a big McKellen fan. So I'll watch this.
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One of my all-time favorites! This is interesting news. I was wondering how long it would take someone to dive into that 60's world!
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....how they justify not filming it Portmeirion???
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And call you a stupid cunt! I think I'll do that now. Anyway, they can't remake the Prisoner, it's impossible, so why even bother? It's a unique show. I heard they're not evening filming this in Portmeirion! Disgraceful.
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The talent needs balance.
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That is, if they follow the original show. I'm sorry, I know a lot of people treat this show as the Holy Grail of television, but the series was almost entirely filler. Besides the pilot, finale, and one or two others, there was not much actual progress going on. Six episodes is enough to mildly advance things each time while not straying too much from the original. I love a lot of "good" television, but I think this show is really only amazing as people say it is when you look at it in terms of what it would influence down the road, and what sort of things you could now do on TV, as opposed to the actual story quality of each episode.
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Gotta be done. Or is he dead now? This is quite weird actually, because if i remember rightly, McGoohan was a hot tip to play Gandalf in LOTR before McKellan was chosen. I even heard that McGoohan turned the gig down. Crazy if he did, but he's still a legend. Im not entirely convinced that Caviezel can fill his shoes to be honest. Even Jesus is no match for the prisoner. The original was one of the most intensely watchable series' ever. It was like the lost of that period i think. Although the ending really screwed with my mind. I think the shot of No. 6 walking by the Houses of Parliament with that midget was the final straw. Or was it when everyone kept singing "Them Bones" for some crazy reason. Was McGoohan on crack when he wrote that ep?
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Jun 30, 2008 4:27:23 PM CDT
GAY MAN'S FANTASY-- TRAPPED WITH IAN ON AN ISLAND! =0)
by the marquis de side 3
The sexy black outfits...always being called a "prisoner"...the bouncing ball that envelops its victims like latex...trapped on a distant and far away island remote from any known conservative civilization...living in "the village"...and now, with Ian McKellen as "Number 2"!?! Oh come on! looks like the party isn't over for THIS version of "The Prisoner"! =0) (you're sure the island isn't actually Ibiza?)
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Still so wrong.
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Still, Ian is the man!
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Sorry. Had to.
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I would love for this to be good but it will reek of stinky.
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Sorry. Also had to.
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I think THE PRISONER is an induplicably special work. You can make a good thriller from the premise, but the ineffable weirdness of the show-stemming at least in part from having to work around the difficulties encountered while making it-can't be recaptured.
That said, that's good casting news. Sir Ian is money in the bank, and Caviezel is an interesting actor, quiet and intense; the hype around TTRL and JESUS CHAINSAW MASSACRE has really obscured his talent. -
Exactly! The last two episodes of the original series evoke a vast range of emotions. They were produced in a unique cultural time. They shouldn't try to recapture that.
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That was a fucking brilliant show. My interest in this just rocketed. The fact that ITV is involved dampens my enthusiasm somewhat. They must have produced something worth watching since the third series of Cracker, but I can't think what. If only Eccleston was still the lead.
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I disagree about much of the series' episodes being filler. hate to compare the two but you might say most every episode of Gilligan's Island was filler, except for the first and the tv movie where the elderly cast turns the island into a resort.
Just because there wasn't PROGress (escape) didn't mean the story didn't progRESS.
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Would have rocked. I really hope Patrick McGoohan is involved somehow...even if it's only to the extent that Doug Adams was involved in the (meh) Hitchhiker's movie. (His presence was felt at least)
I am thankful PM is alive to at least have the opportunity to be involved. -
It is on ITV1, and McKellen was hilarious on it. Stupid, fucking Variety - not every UK TV show is made by the BBC.
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the new number 2 is supposed to be different in each episode...but they will say this is a reimaging, and they can do what they want...well fuck them...and fuck michael bay
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but at least McKellen will make it watchable.
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Who knows what they've got planned for this. As a devout fan of the original, Ive been surprisingly on board with the idea of a remake. I remember first hearing about a possible Prisoner re-do when Mel Gibson was planning to do it with, I believe, pretty direct involvement from Patrick McGoohan (this was after they did Braveheart together). Then that version fizzled out (for reasons that I don't think were ever given). Then Simon West (Con Air, Tomb Raider) had signed on to direct it, and while he's not exactly a visionary director, I read an interview with him where he was raving about what a huge fan of the series he was and this was a total dream project for him, so I still felt it was in good hands. Then that version also just withered on the vine. Then talk of this new mini-series as well as a movie came along. I know at one point the mini was described by someone involved as a "radical re-imagining" of the original, which definitely made me nervous. But even that was around a year ago, so again, who knows what we may end up with. I'm not opposed to Caviezel as Number 6, although I think Eccleston might have been a better choice. Sir Ian will certainly make a fine Number 2. I'm not even opposed to them not filming it in Portmerion. you don't just want to do a carbon copy of the original, conceptually or visually. My concern is that we may end up with sonething that bears almost no resemblence to the original. It needs to be faithful at least in spirit to McGoohan's version. The original series certainly dealt with serious subjects, but it almost always included a strong element of dark humor as well, plus a sort of "hyper-reality" in it's visual style and feel.
As far as the Number of Episodes, Six is fine. Even Patrick McGoohan said the original series was only planned as seven episodes but extended it to 17 to make it more "sellable" to the networks. I just hope they manage to get this right. It's been through so many stops & starts and considering how influencial the original was, I'm all for anything that can help introduce more people to it. So whoever is working on this, do your Village proud! Be Seeing You! -
Thats fine if they want to bookend him to be the Leo Mckern-essque #2 but it doesn't work for him in the whole thing. I am glad though Eccleston turned it down, he's made his disdain for Dr. Who pretty clear and I wouldn't want to see him phone it in again on this.
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I agree, I am definitely on board with Sir Ian being the Leo McKern-esque Number 2 for the beginning and end (Arrival and Departure perhaps?), but having the same Number 2 in every episode? If that's what they're planning ( I couldn't link to the article, does it say that?), that's the sort of thing I talked about earlier as straying too far from the spirit of the original. Now if they dor the right thing and have four other Number 2's, who might be some options? Any thoughts?
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Although you can now get the entire box set for around $50, the whole series of DVDs is also available on Netflix for those who haven't seen it. And if you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to learn "What's it all about?!"
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Unnecessary remake is unnecessary.
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Jun 30, 2008 8:50:45 PM CDT
AMC realize it's a shitty movie channel so it's trying to morph
by prossor
into something like a free version of HBO/Showtime. when it was about classic movies like TCM is, it was great, but then they just said "fuck it" and added teh commercials, and now with all these new tv series, i hope they just change their name from the blasphemous American Movie Classics, which is a fucking hypocritical title the way the Soviets named East germany the "people's democractic republic of democracy and republics freedom up the ass !"
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.. just went number two in his depends
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one staff
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I heard in April they were going to let the option lapse after they decided it was too uniquely British and 60s to be successful. Somebody else picked it up, huh?
Wow. I'm not sure that's good news at all. BCINGU -
You filthy bombay dog. Damn you to hell.
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He's overexposed this decade. He's in everything. And The Prisoner relies on a sense of mystery and uniqueness. So no I don't think it was a good choice.
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Jul 01, 2008 12:14:35 AM CDT
Why can't they take BAD properties and make them GOOD movies...
by royston lodge
...instead of always going the other way 'round? There are plenty of places Hollywood could go for idea (since it can't come up with any new ones) without pissing on the classics. Like, lots of the B Movies on MST3K could actually be turned into decent movies with the right mix of writing, directing, acting, and a budget. Or, go through an archive of tv pilots that never got the green light and find one where the concept was decent but the execution didn't work. People would think the producers were brilliant, not knowing they'd just ripped off a shitty pilot.
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Patrick is very much alive, but he has technically retired. He was offered the roles of both Gandalf and Dumbledore, but turned them down due to health issues.
However, he was trying to get a version of The Prisoner made up until 2002 with the director of Tomb Raider. Perhaps a cameo in this project would be a good bookend to his career? -
the original seminal series was ground breaking for many reasons...it was the first mini series concept...so earth shattering that the studio forced mcgoohan into writing 17 instead of 7 epis...it allowed mcgoohan to move away from his type casted roll...something that tv at the time just wouldnt allow...remember, this guy was pegged as being the next bond...it worked because everyone in both the us and britain saw mcgoohan as being danger man/secret angent man...so they could buy into number 6 being a former agent....this show broke every rule in the book...the hero didnt win at the end of every episode, and by the end of the series, you still dont know if he wins or loses...and even if he has won, what has he won? the closest show in both tone was the fugitive, and even that became formulaic...the show got past the censors in dealing with political and social issues...the hero never gets the girl, my god, he never even kissed any woman...and women were shown to have leadership roles, with one of the number 2s being a female, and the village being filled with former female agents...the show also had serious religious overtones, and to this day, im not sure if mcgoohan was indicting or embracing christianity...to me, mcgoohan had as much of an impact on popular culture as people like kovacs and moore...all fans of lost need to bow at the alters of both mcgoohan and moore, for their is no doubt that each of the writers have a copy of watchmen and a dvd of the prisoner in their homes, which they peruse daily...and how will the remake build on the canon of the original? i have a fear that this show will be more like 24 than the original...
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was offered the roles of Gandalf and Dumbledore, but turned them down for health reasons. He's not a well man so won't be appearing in a cameo.
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The number 2 will change each episode, I have read one episode script for this, yes written by Mr Gallagher, and they are not revealing this until it comes out, that the number 2's will change.
Location is in a strange village in Africa, that looks completely out of place for africa, but is surrounded by desert.
yes I ahve information, and I am willing to share some of what I know wiothout getting into too much trouble, but either no one believes me, or no one is interested.
What I ahve said in past is, that wehn I was involved in this no one was cast, but they wanted different people, so I can not copmment on actors in any way, Script, Scenery, hidden gems, I have some knowledge on.
anyone interested? -
And Bill Gallagher writing this means it'll likely be fairly mediocre.
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Butat the time I had not watched the original, I have since watched the original series.
Its hard to say from reading only one script, I know the producers were very happy with the script. But it took ages for the final draft to come in.
I think JC is probable or else they would not be reporting it, when I was involved no one had been cast at all, they reied Ecclestone and that ghuy, forget his name from 300 Leonidas, they also fooloshly tried Daniel Craig, and also the guy who was the baddie in Die another die was a consideration at one point, but this was all over a year ago.
I dont like the idea of JC either. -
Instead of committing to the Tin-Tin scripts. But I suppose the money was too much to turn down that gig.
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No chance, this is not a huge budget, thats why its only 6 eps,
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It was a perfect show for the beatle-esq sixties. It had that lsd/acidic/pscychedelic quality of the 1960s/1970. It was bonkers. completely and utterly. incomprehensible. even the end was mad. Leo Mckern was great. Patrick McGooghan wet into exile/retirement after show. came out briefly to work on films like Braveheart. Before dying as a recluse.
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about McGoohan dying. He is still a recluse. and doesnt talk to the media.
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Jul 01, 2008 10:41:32 AM CDT
Fuck This Unless They Fire Caviezel, And Hire CLIVE OWEN!!!
by laserpants
He would be perfect. McKellan is great casting for Number 2, but Caviezel as number 6 is fucking TERRIBLE casting.
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Well if its written exactly like the old one, then yes it will be out of date, but its not written like that, I think they are going for a LOST kind of feel for this, and it reads very interesting, I wanted to know more, I think they have written in stuff thats going on we dont know about till later on, but imagin LST where it all pans out in 6 episodes..Hmm> Might not be enough time to tell it properly.
Oh and McGoohan cant be dead because they have approached him about doing a cameo, my tip is for him to be one of the numbers 2's in one of the shows. Or ultimately he is number 1.
I dont like idea of JC either, so I hope thats wrong -
Guys the African village is even coller and wierder looking than the old village, you wont be dissapointed.
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I would say that he will have to have some sort of in put. and they would have had to come up with one hell of a story for him get involved in this show again. They have tried to get a movie up and running, only for McGoohan to shoot the movie down.
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christopher Ecclestone. But like who he worried about being typecasting and left. I am joking of course. But he would have gone by the third episode.
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as a priosner trapped on an island. There was further nonsense with Christophe lambert. the fortress and the equally inane fortress 2. All of these stupid movies, had aspirations to be like the prisoner. in thier dreams .
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it's called "Lost"
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of Brigadoon...but there are elements of The prisoner there too.
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the remark about rotten cabbages from Free For All is always pretty relevant, especially in the past 8 years.
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They can come up with all the silly new shit that they want, but I want a re-do of the episode Hammer and Anvil, very little if any dialog changes, it's such a good example of psychological intrigue, it shouldn't be messed with very much at all.
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...the proposed Chris Nolan feature film? I can't believe that. Someone know something I don't? Is it off?
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and it's a difficult call. But on the whole, I'd say.. make it. Good examples of new regens whilst the old remain classic; DrWho, Bond, Trek. But I agree, it has to follow McGoohan's spirit. Especially with him alive and maybe able to comment/advise, at least. This needs to be Casino Royale, not The Man with the Golden Gun!
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I'm in for McKellan and maybe for Caveizel. He was good in Frequency and seems a little unhinged. Having a different No.2 each episode was one of the best things about the series, but I guess when you've got such a big star and great actor, you have to use him to the max.
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The episode is called Hammer Into Anvil, it has been a while since I've seen it.
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Iain McKellan will not be the umber 2 in every show, there will be a different one.
McGoohan was in no way consuklted or paid for the mkaing of this show that I know of, they were beginning talks to have him cameo at some point, no other involvement.
Script was start to finish done by the new writer alone.
This will be different from the original people, its not a remake, i.e. Anvil into Hammer etc, its the basic principla of a spy guys caught iand in a village with everyone being numbers, he is number 6, there is a different number 2 every week etc, but thats where the similiarities end, I am not even sure if the big ball is coming back, but I heard hints that it would be there, but that might have changed in the last year.
African location is really cool looking and all I can say as some spoiler is " What's underneath the village".
Thats pretty much all the info that I can verify or correct without taking too many risks as I had so sign a non disclosure agreement. I have not read all six scripts as I said, only the one and it was not episode 1, thinmk it was episode 2.
tis wont have the weird surral parts that old one did i.e. they dont walk about village in super colour clothes doing weird stuff, they have jobs like Mechanics and stuff.
It will deffo be more LOST than the original and more srious
Ta ta -
If the old show was just surfacing now it would never have been green lit - all they want to make is BLOODY REMAKES!!!!
I was hoping no 6 would turn up in 'Lost' and make sence of it all for us! -
If this is a mini rather than an ongoing series it would make sene that this Number 2 wuld stay for the duration. It would be really cool if they maede McKellan Numbert Six Though wouldn't it. He's supposed to be retired or fallen out with the PTBs but either way there could b some sense in makinhg No. 6 and older man ot witting the youinge dudes rying to bring him down. Make their failures all the more frustrating while he has that superior air that MGooah brought to it and then he sees he's No. 1 as well.
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Read my post, everyone keeps saying Iain Mckellan will saty on as number 2, I am telling you all right now that this will not happen, and if it does I owe everyone a big apology, because I was told by the producer that they were chnging them like the old one.
I do actually agree with you on your second point though, that would be really interesting to see McKellen as Number 6 I think, but that will definitely not happen, the only reason McKellen is there is because its a dif number 2 every week, they could not afford McKellen as number 6 trust me, budget is poor for this, typical UK TV budget, being croos funded in the States. -
to get him at all. Guess we should be thankful for that bit of awesomeness.
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It will be interesting to see if he stays for more than one show, or just the oen, also who the other Number 2's will be.
as said I know they wanted McGoohan to have a cameo, but apprently he is total bonkers, so they were not sure if they could get him, wonder what part they had in mind for him, nobody told me anyhoo....
Would love to see him in it as a guest number 2, or even the eventual number 1 would be cool
But I do think they may have missed an opportunity to ahve someone like MCkellen be the actual nmber 6 though, as Caviziel does not fill me with confidence -
gonna look lame after MCKellan's had his go. After No.6 defeats him the rest'll be like yeah course he can take that guy. It's not like Ian McKellan. Maybe they should work up to Ian, put in the middle or something.
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