The Prisoner (Be Seeing You 2009 Edition)

[Silver Wolf]

Does anyone here remember (or at the least have heard of) of Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner?

It was a pretty well written and mind-tripping series for it's time (the late 1960s, no less). Spy drama filled with conspiracies, mind-games, allegories and all wrapped in enough trippy sequences and events to keep one not completely sure as to what the heck was going on and still enjoy it just the same.

You can watch the whole show for free here. (Not sure how large the region restrictions are though [North America, at least seems fine])

This intro should sum up the show for the uninitiated:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14eUKogPF7s&fmt=18"]The Prisoner-1960s[/ame]

Recently AMC (the current rights holder to the show and owner of the aforementioned website) have been making their own Prisoner 6-part miniseries, or in their words "a Prisoner for the modern day," to air on ITV and the AMC in November this year. It is decidedly not a remake or a "better version," but a reinterpretation of sorts. James Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ, The Count of Monte Cristo) plays "Number Six" and Ian McKellen (LotR obviously) plays "Number Two."

Some videos (trailers, behind the scenes stuff, Ian McKellen's Blog) can be found here but here is a nine minute preview trailer from Comic Con 2009 in case you aren't willing to look through everything:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aymtpKzjXc0&feature=channel_page"]The Prisoner-2009[/ame]

It looks promising...different certainly, but not a "horrid massacre of a perfect masterpiece" as some people seem driven to believe. I, at least, fully intend to see how this turns out.

What are your thoughts on this?

EDIT: Could someone edit the title of the thread to "The Prisoner (Be Seeing You 2009 Edition)" I think that fits alot better, thanks.

 

[Silver Wolf]

Is anyone else looking foward to this, or at least curious about it, or am I completely alone in this and no one actually reads or cares about any of these threads?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IABVQhn2wos"]New The Prisoner-Trailer[/ame]

It will be airing tomorrow (Sunday, November 15th) and onwards to November 17th on AMC if anyone wants to see it.

 

[Silver Wolf]

I thought I might add this for good measure, first a MV/Summary (not a full plot summary) for the show and a small taste of the classic series episode, "Arrival."

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxAfefkzs1s"]The Prisoner-Tribute[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs1ekTX_8zM"]Arrival[/ame]

 

[Silver Wolf]

On a related tangent, apparently restored/remastered DVDs of the show are coming out. Here are clips from the episode "Checkmate" and "Free for All," which originally aired in 1967.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lp_0p6TxNw"]Checkmate[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op7IgFbT8l0"]Free for All[/ame]

If a show from the 60's can be brought into HD this well, then MMPR should be a breeze.

Also I highly reccomend watching the full episode of "Checkmate" if you can, it's pretty deep for a spy drama/scifi thriller:
[HIDE]AMC-Classic Series-Checkmate[/HIDE]

Trivia bit: Apparently the imprints left by the human chess board is still there in the grass in Portmeirion (practically everything from the series is still there, fans even have conventions there every year) nearly 40 years later.