Quand la chaîne du câble américain AMC annonça voilà quelques temps déjà qu’elle lançait très officiellement un remake télévisuel du Prisonnier, série phare de la fin des années soixante pour laquelle le terme « culte » semble avoir été créé, on put lire ça et là deux types de réactions. Tout d’abord celle d’un public lambda n’ayant pas vu la série originelle, donc peu ou pas marqué par la saga. Ces spectateurs-là s’en foutaient un peu, attendant sans engouement particulier de voir ce qu’on allait leur offrir. Et il y eut la réaction des fans, des connaisseurs, des amoureux, ceux pour qui les dix-sept épisodes de l’œuvre matricielle forment un monument intouchable et indépassable. Voulue, créée, produite, scénarisée et réalisée en grande partie par Patrick McGoohan, alors mondialement connu pour son rôle de l’agent secret John Drake dans la série Destination Danger et qui s’adjugea au passage le rôle-titre, Le Prisonnier est forcément une œuvre à part.
Après les nombreuses rumeurs au cours des années passées sur la possible adaptation de la série sur grand écran (1), le serpent de mer cinématographique prenait finalement son essor sur l’étrange lucarne qui hante nos salons. Puis arrivèrent les premières informations : la série ne reprendrait pas le décor de l’original, préférant un nouvel environnement à la surexploitation d’un lieu devenu mythique (2), le numéro 2 serait le même tout au long de la série alors que ce rôle très symbolique se voyait incarné par un nouvel acteur à chaque épisode.
D’ailleurs cette nouvelle version n’en comptera que six, épisodes, rejoignant en cela la volonté première de McGoohan qui dut « rallonger » son œuvre plus qu’il ne le voulait afin d’en faciliter la vente (et donc la production même) aux Etats-Unis.
Des marques importantes de respect, une nouvelle vision et non une basse copie mercantile et servile, une actualisation d’un feuilleton qui fut en avance sur tout le monde.
Et puis avouons-le, lorsque l’on apprend qu’en plus l’unique numéro 2 sera joué par le grand Ian McKellen, quand même, on se dit que ça a de la gueule et ça rassure.
La série fut diffusée sur trois soirées à raison de deux épisodes par jour. Une « salve » du genre à marquer le coup et à attirer les spectateurs potentiels qu’il faut bien pouvoir arracher à leurs shows habituels. Le Prisonnier possède comme toute grande œuvre un rayonnement que les années n’ont pas su entamer et les plus réfractaires comme les plus curieux ne purent facilement résister à l’envie de voir enfin ce qu’allait apporter cette nouvelle vision en dehors du rôdeur – la grosse boule blanche – aperçue dans la longue-bande annonce afin de tranquilliser tout le monde.

Un homme (Jim Caviezel) se réveille dans un désert de dunes. Il y découvre « le village », une cité où les habitants se désignent par des numéros au lieu de noms et vivent sous l’autorité bienveillante du numéro 2. Comment est-il arrivé là ? Il l’ignore et découvre que partir ne sera pas facile, personne autour de lui ne semblant croire qu’il puisse exister un « ailleurs ». Bien décidé à s’enfuir, le nouveau numéro 6 va se lancer dans une bataille pour retrouver l’existence qui était la sienne, ce qui l’amènera à découvrir le secret de ce lieu étrange.
Si le résumé de cette nouvelle version sonne comme l’exact reflet de son modèle, autant vous avertir tout de suite que la comparaison s’arrêtera là et que quelques minutes suffiront pour vous convaincre qu’un bon sujet sans vision solide derrière n’amène qu’à la déception. Car ce Prisonnier 2009 n’est que cela au final, une déception amère – encore que pas tout à fait surprenante – au regard des moyens déployés.
Le village ressemble à une station balnéaire figée dans les années 50 sans qu’il n’apporte un supplément d’âme, les personnages sont creux, souffrant d’un manque de caractère flagrant. Au premier rang desquels nul autre que le héros, numéro 6, partagé sans cesse entre ce qu’il doit faire, se laissant plus porter par les événements que prêt à se retrousser les manches pour se sortir de là. Même le numéro 2 laisse un certain goût d’inachevé tant il ne semble pas faire grand chose à part se balader en costume blanc. Un super méchant ramené à l’état de « El gringo », on a connu plus ambitieux.

Ajoutez à cela une forme aussi languissante et mal maîtrisée que le fond (les enchaînements de scènes laissent parfois à penser que le monteur devait travailler sous l’influence de substances illicites) et vous obtenez ce que beaucoup attendaient et/ou redoutaient : un effroyable ratage, un enterrement grand luxe pour un projet qui partait avec une montagne trop haute à escalader. La décence, le devoir de réserve ainsi qu’une certaine honnêteté nous obligent à passer sous silence la résolution du tout, volontairement alambiquée mais fumeuse à laquelle le spectateur déjà à moitié endormi par les cinq heures et demie précédentes ne prêtera que peu d’attention. Là où McGoohan jouait avec les attentes de ses spectateurs et transformait son travail en “énigme allégorique” inscrivant la série dans les annales de la télévision autant que dans les consciences, cette nouvelle version ne se hissera jamais qu’au niveau d’un Lost ou d’un Prison Break, deux plaisirs coupables dont plus personne ne parlera quand ils auront disparu des écrans.
Car qu’on le veuille ou non, chaque image, chaque action, chaque faux pas de la copie est inconsciemment comparé à l’excellence de son modèle, une œuvre si forte qu’elle reste une référence incontournable quarante-deux ans après sa création.
Bonjour chez vous.

(1) Suite à leur collaboration fructueuse sur Braveheart, Patrick McGoohan soutint la mise en chantier d’une version avec Mel Gibson dans le rôle-titre.
(2) La ville de Portmeirion qui servit au tournage existe bel et bien sur les côtes du Pays de Galles > http://www.portmeirion-village.com/

Julien Taillard

> Site officiel de la minisérie

Trailer de la mini-série Le Prisonnier version 2009 sur AMC


Trailer de la série originale

My problems with the new Prisoner series so far (I’m about 2/3rds of the way through).

• Number Six isn’t a secret agent as in the original, but some sort of middling ‘analyst’ for some Evil Corporation. The show is playing on, I guess, vintage-1998 fears about Echelon, rather than on Cold War fears which were much more weighty. I don’t even care about this Number Six or why he resigned.
• In the original, it’s (sort of) clear they brought Number Six there to learn why he resigned. They ask him a lot why he resigned, and try to trick him in various ways. In this one, they haven’t asked him yet, and there aren’t really any tricks/mind games. I don’t even care why he resigned, and the show seems to have forgotten.
• The original used the Big White Ball due to technical limitations. This one is still using a Big White Ball. I was hoping for better.
• The Village was a cute seaside resort in the original. In this one it seems to be a boring company-town suburb somewhere in New Mexico.
• No pennyfarthing bicycles!
• No observation room with a giant seesaw and guys looking in spying-scopes.
• The original had a campy ’60s vibe and a wacky sense of humor. This one is Serious and it’s not clear why.
• The whole vibe and theme reminds one of a combination of the ’90s series Nowhere Man and the ’90s movie The Truman Show. In fact, it makes me want to watch Nowhere Man b/c I have a feeling that was better.

I hadn’t realized when I started watching that this is just a six-episode miniseries rather than a full TV series. I was relieved when I found this out. I do like Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan, but the material they have here is so blah, at least, so far. I’ll finish the thing, and maybe it’ll turn around in the last two hours, but so far, what a disappointment.

A miniseries shown on AMC, starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen. Yes, Jesus and Magneto(or Gandalf). It’s a remake of an older version which I can’t compare because I haven’t seen it. The structure is sort’ve of Lost-ish with flashbacks from one reality to another, but The Prisoner is more dreamy and trance-like. I like the concept of the film which begins with a man who finds himself in a world where only a small village in a desert exists. His main purpose in the story is to figure out how to escape. But I think too much emphasis is put on the culmination of the ah-ha realization at the end without helping us enjoy the ride there.

Review: AMC’s The Prisoner

November 18th, 2009

“There’s something thrilling about honesty.”

There’s a moment in the final hour of AMC’s remake of The Prisoner where I started to realize where its real problem lies. This is not to say that I haven’t been realizing the show’s problems from the word go, as the first five hours of the show were highly problematic, but when Ian McKellen’s 2 utters the above line I realized that this is where the intentions of the miniseries went awry.

There are problems with the thematic content of this miniseries, but the real problem is how the writer chose to structure this story in order to create a sense of mystery that was ultimately more vague than it was exciting. In the eyes of the writers, the climax of this story is when the story becomes clear to the audience, and the purpose of the rest of the miniseries is to effectively buy time and confuse us until we’re so desperate for clarity that when we receive it we give ourselves over to the truth. And, to some degree, the strategy worked: the final hour was, in fact, the best of this miniseries primarily because it was finally revealing and engaging with the larger thematic issues being discussed.

However, the problem with this strategy is that the cloudiness of the first four and a half hours of the miniseries not only made us hunger for thrills but also destroyed any sense of thematic consistency and, as a result, destroyed audience interest. While the theme presented at the end of the miniseries is actually compelling, it was so wholly absent for the first four hours (in particular) that it ends up depending entirely on the audience’s willingness to slog through an abstract and experimental four hours where the writer keeps adding new elements to the series when it’s in some way convenient for them as opposed to when it feels earned or natural.

While the miniseries eventually creates a compelling image of modern society, it’s an image that does little to make the first hour hours any better, and in some ways makes them even more irrelevant. It results in a miniseries that is the absolute worst sort of failure, where an intriguing idea and a couple of strong performances are executed in such a way to rob them of any potential to move their intended audience.

The miniseries is the story of Summakor, a company led by a man named Curtis who uses his wife’s biochemistry research on the unconscious to develop a simulated utopia of the mind wherein individuals could travel to an ideal society and become “fixed” for their present lives. The utopia, controlled by his wife’s mind, is run by Curtis’ own counterpart within the simulation of sorts, and is supplied with potential patients by the surveillance research completed by Michael, who after trying to resign from the company is thrown into the simulation himself. It is that moment, when Michael (now as 6) finds himself in the middle of the desert with no idea of how he got there, that begins this miniseries, and this is precisely the problem.

See, 6 isn’t actually interesting. Part of the blame lies on Jim Caviezel, who gives a lifeless performance when he’s asked to speak softly and an outright awkward one when he’s forced to raise his voice. However, much of the blame comes from the fact that the character has no life to him, lacking both a sense of humour and a thought that is in any way unrelated to the Village and his current predicament. The miniseries eventually has him perform a number of odd jobs, each more mundane than the next, and because the character has no nuances or subtleties it’s as if they were unable to get the real actor and instead used a stand-in so that they could film what was happening around them.

The script gives us no sense of why Michael/6 does anything he does other than when he blankly exposits it or, even more problematically, when another character (415, 313, or 2) spells it out for us. There are points in the miniseries where 6 will randomly pop up into a scene to interrogate 313, or question 1112, and I’m left wondering what drove him to make this speech. The answer is never clear, and the editing of the miniseries is such that things just move from one beat to the next without ever showing us how, or more importantly why, certain things are taking place in the way that they are.

Now, I understand the reluctance to reveal details of the plot up front: the show is trying to sell itself on mystery, so having 6 arrive confused and disoriented and to make the Village particularly amorphous and challenging makes perfect sense. However, if this is the case, we need to want to watch the show’s protagonist operate in this environment, and the miniseries fails to make the character the least bit compelling. It slowly parcels out any information that could possibly make his character interesting by turning it into a mystery of its own, the scenes with Lucy in New York designed to pique our interest in the plot rather than actually create interest in this character. I understand that 6 isn’t able to know everything about Michael’s life, or it would defeat the purpose of the entire exercise, but if we had been shown more of his past and given a better sense of his character we might have been able to better understand his character’s motives even if he isn’t quite sure what’s going on.

And I’m not even convinced that the plot should have remained a secret. If the purpose of the miniseries was to make us consider the types of themes that the finale of sorts brought to the surface, I don’t know why those themes couldn’t have been introduced first before then turning this into a character study of Michael, Curtis, Lucy, Sarah, and everyone else. I understand that mystery was a key element of the original series, but this theme didn’t feel as if it really needed mystery to work, and I probably would have found the episodes they delivered far more compelling if I understood what was going on. The story of a husband whose wife has become trapped inside her own mind, unable to enjoy the child she created in that mind that she could never have in real life, would have been just as compelling if we weren’t forced into the position of 1112, unaware of the whole story. By forcing us to know as much about the plot as its two most “out of the loop” characters, it creates mystery where it should be creating dramatic interest, and has bored us into submission by the time it decides it wants to be interesting.

A lot of this does have to do with the fact that the miniseries format seems to have been horribly misused in this instance, especially around the middle of the series. The freedom of a normal series structure is that you have time to investigate various different elements of a story, allowing more time for the viewer to become accustomed to an environment or to a set of characters. This can lead to a slower pace, certainly, but it can also really delve into the world the writers have created. This so-called utopia had a lot of elements taken for granted, such as the question of religion (which was present but non-denominational), or the question of governance, and as such there was a chance for them to slow down for a moment and allow 6 to stop rushing from one point to another and actually experience the world in a way that allows us, as an audience to understand it further.

What was so fascinating about this miniseries is that it actually at points started to do this, and yet refused to slow down in order to make it a successful strategy. It’s as if they decided that, instead of doing a full series, they would simply have a few episodes of a traditional series but refuse to have 6 actually slow down to experience any of it. It resulted in an absolutely bizarre pacing struggle, where 6 never stopped moving and yet what we was moving to was neither as exciting as one expects in a short-form miniseries nor as thorough as one expects in a more traditional series structure. Stories like 6 teaching at a school, or working as an undercover, or discovering a lost family, or being placed into an arranged marriage, were the types of stories that might have been interesting if there was ever a sense that they weren’t just a transitional piece of misdirection. And because of the miniseries structure, Michael never stopped to ask why any one particular event was happening, because that would have slowed things down too much and limited the impact of the big picture, which remained a broad question of “Why am I here?” that rarely changed as each episode passed.

It was only when things started to come together in the end that the miniseries started to be more successful, as the New York and the Village began to connect with one another in a legitimately intriguing way. By the time we got to “Checkmate,” I was confused less about what was going on (which I’d argue is counter productive) and more about what was going to happen (which, to me, is the perfect source of tension). When the two worlds collided through more than just a boring conversation between Michael and Lucy in his own memory, the show was finally telling us something about its key themes. Summakor went from some sort of faceless corporation to a clear part of our narrative, and 313 went from an undefined female love interest to a legitimately tragic character whose pain is now comprehensible (and present at all, really). When all of that happens, the story suddenly becomes really interesting, and I’m guessing that if you watched the finale first, the first five hours of the miniseries would probably be a whole lot more interesting – if honesty is so thrilling, why not open with it so that the boring introduction is the least bit compelling?

There were some interesting elements to be salvaged here. I thought Ian McKellen was great throughout, even if the character of 2 became problematically expository at various points within the narrative, and Curtis’ story is probably the most complete story provided to any of the characters (perhaps helped by the fact that it becomes clear the quickest). And I liked the idea that the leader was 2, as opposed to 1, because the idea of being whole (of being one soul) was unattainable to those who have essentially been split into two in order for them to improve their lives. And the idea of the Dreamers, people who aren’t as easily assimilated into this new utopia, working as a sort of resistance to the sense of order has some real potential to it. I think there’s a really intriguing miniseries to be told about that environment, one which could deal with the same themes that writer Bill Gallagher wants to deal with here, but this just wasn’t it in any way.

Some broad stories like this suffer from a weak ending, but I thought this one was compelling: Michael, who is responsible for this program starting as a result of his Big Brother-like observations within Summakor, is forced to choose between destroying the Utopia or attempting to take over and fix what Curtis was unable to sustain before him. In the end, he chooses the latter because of what he sees Sarah turning into, and when he sees that 147’s real life counterpart is closer to getting to see his daughter as a result of the process being undertaken, and he chooses to believe that helping people (even when they don’t ask for it, as is implied) is worthwhile. It may be a prison, but like any prison system it’s one that people believe can reform people, and that some believe can be changed to truly be a utopia of sorts. And so Michael sacrifices himself as Curtis once did, and 313 gives up her life in the village to serve as the new host, drugged into a state of unknowing.

But a satisfying ending doesn’t make the rest of the miniseries any more interesting, except from the perspective of analyzing the ending more carefully in the context of the rest of the story. However, while Daniel Fienberg has written an extensive analysis that makes the story seem really compelling, I wanted the show to be that compelling. If these kinds of ideas are so interesting, then why weren’t they present throughout the miniseries in a way that went beyond a scattered collection of disconnected and “weird” story beats? While Daniel’s right to point out that you could write extensive essays on the theme of the miniseries, you could also (heck, I sort of just did) write extensive essays about how poorly it organizes itself to actually capture those themes in an entertaining piece of television.

And while we do give points for intention, when the execution is this muddled and confused I can’t really suggest that any but the most morbidly curious seek out this miniseries for entertainment purposes. If this had been executed, it could have been another notch in AMC’s belt – as it turned out, it’s an intriguing oddity that’s more failure than success and more idea than execution.

Cultural Observations

• Jace over at Televisionary has an interview with the writer, Bill Gallagher, which reveals both that he “wrote small” for the miniseries (which makes about as much sense as it sounds) and that he never intended for the glass towers seen by the dreamers to in any way represent the World Trade Centre. The first I can sort of understand, even if it does explain a number of the show’s problems, but the latter baffles my mind: it’s one thing not to see the connections with really broad philosophical constructs (there’s some of Plato’s “The Cave” in here, as Jace points out), but it’s another to miss something so culturally relevant to the show’s New York setting.
• Considering that the actress who played 313 looked a bit like January Jones, there were a few times where I imagined the cast of Man Men (Jon Hamm, Jones, Elisabeth Moss, etc.) replacing the non-McKellen cast members, and I have to tell you that it became a far more interesting show as a result.
• That being said, I did think that the cast was solid other than Caviezel, especially Lennie James and young Jamie Campbell Bower (who is playing Weymar Royce in the Game of Thrones pilot for HBO).
• A legitimate question: I have to wonder if AMC always intended to air the miniseries over three nights. The episodes are clearly distinct from each other, which meant that they could have easily spread it out over six nights (Sunday-Friday) or over six weeks like a traditional series. I have to wonder if the quality of the opening episodes might have made this decision for them, or if they felt there was some other reason to air two hours a night during an extremely busy sweeps period.

Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel

“I AM not a number. I am a free man.”

Every day’s a sunny day in The Village.

Last night I was among 400 people invited to an exclusive UK screening of a 21st century version of The Prisoner.

If you’re reading this in America, you may already have seen all six parts.

Transmitted this week in the USA by ITV’s co-production partner AMC.

So if you’ve got an opinion on the new series, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

The rest of us will be keen to know what’s in store when ITV1 broadcast the drama in 2010.

I was just 10 when ITV began screening the original series of The Prisoner in 1967.

Starring Patrick McGoohan as Number Six, a former British secret agent held prisoner in a strange seaside village.

Where everybody was a number, not a name, and there was no escape.

Like millions of others, it held me spellbound for 17 baffling episodes before a quite incredible ending.

Nothing like it had been seen before and over 40 years later it’s still a cult classic.

The “re-imagining” sees American actor Jim Caviezel in the role of Number Six.

He played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

Our very own Sir Ian McKellen is Number Two, the sinister figure who appears to control The Village.

He was at last night’s screening in London of the first two episodes and told us:

“It was about 18 months ago when this script arrived. The title was enough to make me read it immediately.

“It was just a job that I had to take and I didn’t know who else was going to be in it. All along, I knew this was going to work.”

Not a number: Patrick McGooham as the original Number Six

While the new production was shot in Namibia and South Africa.

The spectacular setting reminded me of The Truman Show crossed with Michael Palin’s Sahara.

With several flashbacks to Number Six’s previous life in New York.

Including the opening titles which see him quitting his job via the usual method of spraying the word ‘Resign’ in red paint on your office window.

In episode two we discover he was an analyst for a company that monitors CCTV patterns around the globe.

Spotting something sinister about people disappearing, making a report and then…

The first we see of Number Six is waking up on a desert ledge, amid memories of his old life back in Manhattan.

An old man is running through the hills, being chased by men with guns.

“Be seeing you,” says the old man – revealed to be Number 93 – before he dies.

A phrase which you will hear again.

There’s no point spoiling the fun for those yet to see the series.

Which has, I think it’s fair to say, attracted mixed reviews in America.

Personally, I was eager to see a lot more after the first two episodes.

There are some neat echoes of the 1960s in The Village, including the décor of the homes.

Along with vehicles which include Commer vans, Morris Minors and, joy of joys, a Bubble Car.

And talking of bubbles…fans of the original will not be disappointed…

“There is no New York. There is only The Village,’ insists Number Two.

“There is no out. There is only in.”

Other things to watch out for include:

*A ghostly ice-like twin towers building in the desert.

*Food wraps.

ITV Director of Television Peter Fincham is one year older than me and spoke before the screening of his own memories of The Prisoner.

“I’m Number One, I guess,” he joked.

“It was a brilliant series – television drama didn’t have to be what you expected it to be. It could surprise you.

“It didn’t even need to reveal its meaning to you. It could confuse you. It could leave you wondering what you’d just seen.”

As for the 2009 re-make, he added: “It’s changed a lot, though it’s the same in some ways.

“It has echoes of The Prisoner of the sixties but it’s a thoroughly modern series.

“Its themes of freedom of the individual against the state, of the pressure to conform, they’re timeless.

“And you’ll find them all in this new version of The Prisoner.”

The Prisoner ITV Site

The Prisoner AMC Site

The Prisoner AMC YouTube trailer

Ian McKellen’s Prisoner Blog

The Prisoner: British Film Institute

The Unmutual Prisoner Fansite

The Prisoner DVD

The Prisoner DVD (Blu-ray)

Follow Ian Wylie on Twitter

Jamie Campbell Bower as Number 11-12 in The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

Imagine having a life where pretty much everything you want is within easy reach and all you have to do is ask for it. In AMC’s re-imagined version of The Prisoner, Number 11-12 wakes up to that every day as a resident of The Village. The son of Number Two, the overseer of this residential “paradise,” and M2, his idealistic mother, this 17-year-old is among the privileged and is being groomed to one day take over his father’s duties within The Village. It sounds like the perfect situation, maybe not for 11-12, but it was one that actor Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays 11-12, could not wait to jump into.

“There had been rumors of The Prisoner floating about, and then I got a phone call from my agent telling me, ‘I think you should go out for this.’ He’s rarely wrong, so I did,” recalls Bower. “I received four pages of audition sides from one of the episodes, and as I read them something really struck home with me. There was just something quite moving about the material and this idea of family and the connection between 11-12 and his father, Two, played by Ian McKellen.

“So I was very excited about the project to begin with, and it was, I think, a rainy Tuesday afternoon when I went down to London’s South Bank next to the Thames for my audition. Whatever I did must have worked because I received another call telling me that I got the role, which was brilliant.”

11-12 with his father, Number Two (Ian McKellen). Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

While a life of privilege may sound enticing to some, especially a young person, it is rarely all that is cracked up to be. And as typically happens, no one seems to have asked 11-12 what he wants.

“With my character, it’s that classic case of, ‘I don’t want to be the prince any more. I want to be an ordinary person,” says Bower. “But then he also thinks that one day he might inherit The Village, so like most people his age, 11-12 is definitely feeling some angst towards his father. As for his relationship with his mother, M2 [Rachael Blake], it’s very distant. He loves her dearly, but he never sees her. His mother is just this entity in the house they live in, and 11-12 strives to have a much closer bond with her.

“So as you might imagine, 11-12 is quite highly strung and emotionally charged. He also has this feeling that he’s missing something in his life, but he doesn’t know what it is. Acting-wise, maintaining that high level of intensity and emotion wasn’t easy. In fact,there was one particular scene that I did with Vincent Regan [Number 909] that screws up my character in a major way. We shot it over an entire day and I had to be incredibly emotional most of that time. Again, it was tough, but it was also a challenge and one I enjoyed because it really helped me to grow as a person as well as an actor.”

Not a good day in The Village for 11-12. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

Much to his surprise, a frustrated 11-12’s eyes are opened to an entirely new set of possibilities for his future, thanks to The Village’s newest resident and The Prisoner’s lead character, Number Six (Jim Caviezel). “Six’s arrival throws a bit of a spanner into the works of The Village,” notes Bower. “He comes along and forthrightly and outwardly says, ‘This isn’t all there is’ and 11-12’s reaction to that is, ‘Well, maybe he’s right.’ So his interaction with Six is one of curiosity as well as questioning and trying to understand why it is that this man is saying what he’s saying. And I think 11-12 ends up believing in and trusting Six.”

While their onscreen personas are caught up in the turmoil of what is happening to them, The Prisoner’s cast as well as crew could not have enjoyed their time together more, Bower included. “Everyone involved in this project is incredibly talented and fun,” enthuses the actor. “Working with Ian McKellen is an absolute joy and a pleasure. The same is true of working with young British stars like Hayley Atwell [Lucy/4-15] and Ruth Wilson [Number 313]. We all became good mates and helped each other out, patted one another on the back when we needed it, and laughed at each other when we didn’t need it,” he jokes. “We spent four-and-a-half months together in South Africa. Not many people can say that, apart from those who live there, and we had a really nice time.”

Bower was 14 when he decided that he wanted to become an actor, and four years later made his feature film debut in director Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. “I had just turned 18 and was at boarding school in the English countryside,” he says. “I was sneaking out at five o’clock in the morning through my house master’s backdoor and getting into a car that was waiting for me outside the school gates to take me to set. I’d then return to school around seven at night and go back to bed.

11-12 shares a rare moment with his mother, M2 (Rachael Blake). Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

“I did that for about two weeks and then I made the decision that I should probably just leave school and not bum a free bed off them every night. So that’s what I did, and it was an incredibly terrifying experience for me, being just 18 and working alongside people like Tim Burton as well as Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall. It was also a phenomenal opportunity and it gave me such an amazing starting point that I could never have dreamt of, so I was very, very lucky.”

Besides The Prisoner, Bower can also currently be seen as Caius in the latest installment of the hugely successful teenage vampire tale The Twilight Saga: New Moon. “I was in Los Angeles not too long ago and they were casting for New Moon,” says the actor. “My American agent asked me if I would like to audition for it, and I said that I’d kill to audition for it. So I met with [director] Chris Weitz and then I got a call offering me the role of Caius, which I was really excited about.

“Caius, along with Michael Sheen’s character of Ar0, and Marcus,who is played by Chris Heyerdahl, are the leaders of an ancient Italian vampire coven known as the Volturi. We shot in Vancouver and I was there for about three weeks working with actors like Michael, Chris, Dakota Fanning [Jane], Rob Pattinson [Edward Cullen] and Kris Stewart [Bella Swan]. It was a real treasure of a role for me and another great set of actors to work with and learn from.”

Change is in the air when 11-12 crosses paths with Number Six (Jim Caviezel). Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

The actor has a lead role alongside Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell in the upcoming film London Boulevard and has guest-starred in an episode of the new British Fantasy TV series Game of Thrones. Harry Potter fans can also look forward to enjoying Bower’s performance in the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

“I play Gellert Grindelwald, who’s an old friend of Dumbledore’s [Michael Gambon],” he says. “They have this idea that they can create a utopian wizardry world, and then there’s a big fight and something awful happens,” teases the actor.

“So it was another fun project, and ‘fun’ is one of the things about this job that’s important to me. I hope I can continue doing this up until the point that it isn’t fun any more. That’s when people become jaded and become the person that they never wanted to be. I think growing as an actor and a performer is a wonderful thing to behold, and feeling like you’re learning as well. That’s especially important for young actors like myself who have chosen a different path. We haven’t gone to university, but, instead, have decided that acting is what we want to do, and as long as you’re learning while doing it, then I think that’s the main thing that will keep you happy.”

Steve Eramo

The Prisoner concludes tonight, Tuesday, November 17th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST.

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Number 147 (Lennie James) and his wife, 21-16 (Renate Stuurman) in The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

When some people arrive in a new city or town, one of the first things they do is jump into a taxi. After all, the person behind that wheel knows all there is to know about the local main streets and back roads, right? Nowhere is that perhaps more important than in AMC’s six-part miniseries The Prisoner. As a cab driver in The Village, Number 147 is the one to seek out when looking to go from A to B in this exclusive community. There is so much more to him, though, than just his driving skills, as actor Lennie James, who plays 147, explains.

“At the start of our story, my character is absolutely content and accepting of the rules of The Village in which he lives,” says James. “He is a guy who will gladly tell you what you can and cannot say, where you can and cannot go, and what you can and cannot do. And within the confines of The Village, this man has found complete happiness with his wife [12-16. played by Renate Stuurman] and their child. 147 can’t believe how lucky he is to not just love his wife, but have his wife love him and then bless him with a child.

“In some ways it was a challenge to play a guy who is so content, but what I enjoyed most about the role was playing someone who really has no knowledge of his potential. 147 has no sense of what he can and cannot do, and from early on in the six episodes, is a man who constantly surprises himself.”

The original 60s Prisoner series focused on an ex-Secret Service agent (Patrick McGoohan) who wakes up in a remote seaside locale called The Village. His name has been replaced by a number, Six, and those in charge are intent on finding out the truth about why he resigned from his job. This re-imagined version of the program has its own Number Six (Jim Caviezel), who, like his predecessor, has a profound impact on certain villagers that he meets, including James’ 147.

“Besides 147’s wife and child, my character’s other main relationship is with Number Six,” notes the actor. “When Six arrives in The Village, 147 acts as his guide in more ways than one, and his relationship with Six becomes, literally, life-changing. It changes everything about what he thought his life was and what he comes to realize his life could be. It’s all due to the chance meeting, really, of Six getting into 147’s taxi as opposed to 135’s as it were.”

Keeping an eye on everyone in The Village, especially Six, is Number Two (Ian McKellen). Like his fellow villagers, he makes use of the local taxis, and at one point calls upon 147’s services. “One of the scenes I really enjoyed shooting is one with myself and Ian McKellen, where his character is in the backseat of my character’s taxi,” recalls James. “The whole thing is played through the rearview mirror, and technically it was tricky because you have to look as if you’re not looking at each other. Our two characters communicate exclusively through that mirror and have quite a bit to say to one another. I loved doing that scene, not only because I loved working with Ian, but also because of what was going on in it, which was something worthwhile.”

The Italianate resort village of Portmerion in Gwynedd on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales served as the setting for the original Prisoner. Going for a very different type of look, the producers of the 2009 remake chose to have James along with the rest of the miniseries’ cast and crew shoot in South Africa.

“The location was absolutely fantastic for the story, but it did hold some challenges for us as a cast and crew,” says the actor. “We filmed all our exteriors in a place called Swakopmund, a turn of the century village where the desert meets the sea in Namibia. As Portmerion was in the original Prisoner, this place was very much an extra character that gave the miniseries a particular type of feel.

“Swakopmund is a holiday destination, mostly for Germans, but when we were there it wasn’t holiday season, so we were shooting in a sort of ghost town. There were a lot of empty houses and empty streets, all of which certainly added to our head space as far as playing the villagers. Again, though, there were times where everybody just felt like they were a long way from home.”

How familiar was the actor with Patrick McGoohan’s incarnation of The Prisoner before he began working on this version? “I’m not old enough to have seen the series when it was first broadcast, but it was on a loop, it seems, during my childhood,” he explains. “So I was very aware of it and must have seen, if not all the episodes, most of them at various times while growing up.

Number 147 finds his life of contentment in The Village turned upside-down. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

“I didn’t go back and revisit the series for this production, though, because Bill Gallagher’s [miniseries writer] scripts were so specific as well as different and I didn’t want to put anything in the way of that.”

Born in Nottingham, England and having spent many of his younger years in South London, James once dreamt of giving a very different type of performance in front of an audience. “Like most English boys, I wanted to be a rugby player,” says the actor. “When I was growing up, rugby wasn’t a professional sport, but it was something that I wanted to play at the highest level I could. However, when I realized that I wasn’t good enough, and before acting came into my life, I wanted to at least pursue a career that was sports oriented, such as a physiotherapist or occupational therapist.

“As far as acting, I actually followed a girl who I really fancied into an audition. She wanted to be an actress and the director said I couldn’t stay in the room unless I auditioned.  So I did and I got offered a role.”

A Raisin in the Sun, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Macbeth are among James’ theater credits, while on the big screen he has starred in such films as Outlaw, Sahara, Snatch and Les miserables. On TV, the actor has appeared in several made-for-TV movies as well as guest-starred in shows on both sides of the pond including A Touch of Frost, Cold Feet, Spooks, Lie to Me and Three Rivers. James is probably best known for his regular roles in the British series Out of the Blue and the apocalyptic U.S. drama Jericho.

“Out of the Blue was an ensemble cop show and I loved it,” he enthuses. “It was one of my first big jobs and the first time I worked with Bill Gallagher. We did two seasons of it and, as I’m going to go on to talk about Jericho, one of the things both shows have in common is that they ended, I think, before their time. I’m guessing that whoever made those decisions, in retrospect, probably wouldn’t have done the same thing again.

“My character in Out of the Blue was a guy called Bruce Hannaford, who was kind of an uptight detective and a perpetual bachelor who dressed well and had a rather inflated opinion of himself. It was a great part to play in amongst a terrific cast including John Hannah [D.S. Frank Drinkall], Neil Dudgeon [D.C. Marty Brazil] and John Duttine [D. I. Eric Temple]. I had a wonderful time doing the series and made some very good friends along the way. The same can be said for Jericho, which was, again, a gift of a part for me, in amongst some fantastic actors.”

Of all James’ roles, The Prisoner was one of his easiest to have booked. “The part was pretty much offered to me,” says the actor. “I met with the people I would be working with just to see whether or not we were on the same page, and we were. As I mentioned, I worked with Bill Gallagher before, so it was one of those really nice audition processes where your prior work is taken into consideration and people are gracious enough to offer you the role and not ask you to jump through too many hoops.”

With some people in the entertainment industry, making sure they are always in the public eye is the definition of having a successful career. James, however, is among those who prefer to take a more down-to-earth approach to the profession.

“For me, it’s about the job,” he says. “These days there is a generation of actors, some of whom seem to be getting into the business for the perks as opposed to the actual work. I very much enjoy the moments between the director calling, ‘Action,’ and, ‘Cut,’ when you’re making the [acting] choices. And the actors who I admire and aspire to be like are those who enjoy that, too, and for who fame and celebrity are by-products and not the aim.

“I truly love what I do and feel blessed that I’ve been allowed to continue doing it for the past 20 or so years.”

Steve Eramo

The Prisoner continues tonight, Monday, November 16th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST and concludes at the same time on Tuesday, the 17th. Watch for an interview with Jamie Campbell-Bower (11-12).

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Hello! It’s Sunday. And Sundays, well, Sundays are boring, right? Right.

Went and saw 2012 yesterday, as promised. It was, well… Hmm.

My first reaction to it: Ehhhh. Not horrible, but not great. It’s exactly what’s advertised on the tin, I’ll put it this way. You’ve got a lot of real actors doing some cartoon shit while the world goes to hell all around them. The cast, when you think about it, is actually quite impressive. Also, Woody Harrelson’s in the mix too.

My second reaction to it: Why the fuck didn’t this come out in the middle of the summer?

Third reaction: Comedy of the year, hands down.

Especially in a year when, if you think about it, the big comedy was… what? The Hangover? Right? Get serious. I never saw the movie, I won’t lie, but for a lot of reasons. Primarily, things like the trailer. Did you see it? It looks like it was made for retarded boys. But, you know what’s even worse than the trailer? Listening to people who actually liked the movie. They sound like retarded boys, don’t they? Anyway.

But I really feel like 2012 deserves a good proper Counterforce review. It really does. It’s really our kind of movie, and I mean that in the best and worst possible ways. I don’t know that I’m the man for that job. Benjamin Light, I’m looking at you. Are you the man for that job?

Anyway, I went and saw the film yesterday with Conrad Noir and walking out of the theater, still buzzing from all that ridiculousness, we saw this:

And we thought, “Dear God, who gave that man wings.” Much less Wings Of Desire and much more Red Bull: The Movie.

But then we got into a little conversation, talking about this and that and action heroes of the 80s, mostly cause we’ve been watching a lot of that horrendous/wonderful action movie fare from that decade, and we were talking about how action stars back then were so… foreign seeming. And maybe that contributed a lot to their allure. Maybe it also made some of the ridiculousness easier to stand, too?

For example there, Benjamin Light and were discussing a week or so ago what a remake of The Terminator would look like – since the franchise is up for sale, and should be sold to Joss Whedon, of course, cause why not? – And I brought up the question, “Does the killer robot from the future have to be Austrian?” Commander Light emphatically assured he that it indeed had to be. I’m taking his word for it.

Anyway, so Conrad and I, discussing action stars today, talking about guys like Dwayne Johnson, and how, in our minds, he’s not really latched on with America. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the idea of a “non-conventional” action star quite a bit, i.e. a non white guy running around screaming at people, doing high kicks, and blowing copious amounts of shit up. So why hasn’t “The Rock” caught on with us? I posit two possibilities:

1. In a grab for “credibility” or attempting to “not being as big a joke as he is,” he ditched his silly little wrestling moniker, “The Rock,” and went with his real name: Dwayne Johnson. Except, we can’t root for a guy named Dwayne.

2. Not foreign enough? Perhaps? I suggest investigating this has merit. Especially since it seems American action-loving fans get a bigger hard on from a ponce like Jason Statham than Dwayne Johnson.

Then, walking out of the theater, Conrad and I were looking at the various posters on display, the coming soons and the current releases. Part of me still wants to see This Is It. I’m a Michael Jackson fan, I won’t hide it.  But I’m also a huge Richard Matheson fan, and while I have serious reservations about the movie, I also kind of want to see The Box.

But I don’t know that I trust Richard Kelly anymore. Donnie Darko was okay when it first came out, before you put it through any real tests of serious thought or logic and saw through it’s masturbatory philophosizing. It’s a glorified remake of Last Temptation Of Christ that doesn’t fully pan out. But Kelly also went on to make – speaking of Dwayne Johnson – the gloriously bad Southland Tales.

Look, I’m not going to talk about the Philip K. Dick pastiche that was Southland Tales here. I’m just… not. I’m not going to do it. All I’ll say is I went into that movie wanting to like it. And I sit here now feeling like I’m a veteran of that war. It’s like Richard Kelly is George W. Bush and I was some dumb kid who supported the Iraq war until I went into the fucker and got my bits and pieces all cut off. Now I’m shell shocked.

But, yeah, there’s The Box, directed by Richard Kelly, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, based on the Richard Matheson story, “Button, Button,” and was previously adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone. We’ll see if I ever see it.

And again, here we are. It’s Sunday. Tomorrow’s the start of the “work week.” I’d love to Weeks In Review here at Counterforce, but lately it’s just me rambling and I’d feel bad directing the two and a half readers of this site back to more of me rambling. Poor fuckers. Oh yeah, the season finale of Mad Men was last Sunday. And we had a Friday the 13th happen this past week as well. There you go. Oh, and: Young women having sex with sea creatures. Now there you really go.

But again, here we are. It’s Sunday. Let’s see, let’s see, let’s see… Oh! Tonight was the airing of the latest Doctor Who special over in the UK, “The Waters Of Mars,” the start of the end of David Tennant’s run as #10. You can catch it online if you’re good, if you’re very good, and it’s dark. And a bit sad. And leaves you kind of sweaty and breathless too.

Also tonight is AMC’s remake of the classic 60s show, The Prisoner. I’d watch it, but I’m not sure I want to see my childhood get raped so thoroughly and with such production values. Ian McKellen is a good choice for just about anything, but Jim Caviezel? I think I hate you for that, AMC. Honestly, Jim Caviezel makes Keanu Reeves look like Marlon Brando to me.

Oh well, here we are. The weekend’s almost over. I went to the movies to watch the end of the world as we know it and…

Ruth Wilson plays the beautiful and troubled Number 313 in The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

IN early 2006, Ruth Wilson exploded onto the scene by winning the title role in the BBC’s major new adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre - her first job out of drama school. She went on to gain a BAFTA TV nomination for Best Actress in 2007 and was also brought to the attention of Hollywood with a Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globe Awards. Suddenly labeled as the new “British bright young thing,” the actress next appeared onstage in Maxim Gorky’s The Philistines at the National Theatre in London. This was followed by playing the leads in two critically acclaimed feature films, Capturing Mary, in which Wilson appeared opposite Dame Maggie Smith and David Williams, and A Real Summer, written specifically for the actress and which she performed alone as a monologue.

In The Prisoner, Wilson plays Number 313, a doctor who plays a key role in the day-to-day running of The Village. The following is an AMC Q & A with the actress about her involvement in the miniseries.

Who is 313?

Ruth Wilson – She is a strange figure, a doctor in The Village. She initially meets Six [Jim Caviezel] in Club More – at that point,you have no idea who she is. She next appears in the hospital where Six is waking up, and gradually the relationship between him and 313 grows. She is always there, always around. She has been assigned to look after him by Two [Sir Ian McKellen]. It is part of her job and she doesn’t think much of it. It is only when she is talking to Six, and he starts making her question herself, that all her doubts about living in The Village are exposed. The women in this version are more interesting than the rather two-dimensional characters in the original The Prisoner. 313 is real; she is always changing and has no secrets.

What attracted you to the role?

RW – I find her fascinating to play every scene – there are so many unsaid things going on. Each scene I have to play for the scene. She has a sophisticated, neat, intelligent look. She is a clever woman, but is tortured by everything she has to do. 313 is someone who is pivotal to the way The Village works and fundamental to making it work successfully. She is overcome with guilt. I’ve tried to play her real. In Episode One, she has to build up a relationship with Six to get him to open up to her. She is not as she seems.

Numbers Six (Jim Caviezel) and 313. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

What is her relationship with Six?

RW – They have the same doubts and the same questions. She becomes his confidant. In Episode Three you find out that 313 is a dreamer – she dreams of another place which, in The Village, is a crime and she is forced to deny this. She can’t help being drawn to Six. It is the same with Two – she is drawn to him. In the earlier episodes, she has grown closer to Six and found out how dangerous he is. He has made her dangerous to herself, and she is struggling to hold on to who she is in The Village. She has to obey Two otherwise she will suffer the consequences. She almost has to make a choice between The Village and Six.

Describe 313 as a dreamer?

RW – As a dreamer, she becomes more and more tortured by her dreams. She can’t work out what they are and they keep coming back to her. She’s like an outcast – someone who is secretly hiding who they are. [In latter episodes], she becomes more honest and finds out who she really is. Two makes her face her dreams and nightmares.

How did you find working with Ian McKellen?

RW – It’s great working with Ian because there is a real playfulness that he has. His character is the baddie, but he has loads of depth. Two abuses 313 and manipulates her, but she is drawn to him as a father figure. She opens up to him.

Number 313 on-call in The Village. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

The Prisoner debuts with two episodes on Sunday, November 15th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST and continues at the same time on Monday, the 16th and Tuesday, the 17th. Watch for more Q & As as well as cast interviews as the week goes on.

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

The Prisoner

http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner/premiere/

Tomorrow at 8 pm on AMC the new remake of The Prisoner premieres. I’ve been waiting this from the  moment I saw the commercial for it a week ago. If you like movies like The Matrix, Mad Max, Watchmen and the Truman Show or TV shows like Lost and Alias (which i do) then you’ll love this. Staring the talented Ian Mckellen of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Jim Caviezel of The Count of Monte Cristo and Deja Vu this show promises to be the TV Event of the Year! (And that’s a pretty damn big promise)

This show original premiered in September 1967 and it sent ripples though the Media World influencing TV, music, movies, and art for decades. And lucky you (if you’re interested) you can watch full episodes online at their site.

In the new show a man, played by Jim Caviezel, wakes up in a strange world where only “The Village” exists and there is nothing else. He has lost everything, family, friends, and even his own name. Referred to as the number Six, he tries to escape and get back to his precious New York. His biggest advisory Two, played by Ian Mckellen, does everything in his power to convince Six that this is the world and there is nothing else out there, that he is mentally ill and” there  is no out; there is only in!”

I love shows and movies that tackle the philosophical ideas of defining reality, right and wrong, freedom, and madness. I think my favorite definition for real comes from The Matrix when Morpheus explains what the Matrix is to Neo; he says “if  real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain”. In that case who’s to say we aren’t in the matrix and The Village is all around us?

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow at 8 and  ask yourself “Who’s watching you?”

-Thomasa

Jim Caviezel stars as Number Six in AMC's re-imagined version of the classic British TV series The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

AFTER a rather itinerant life, working in all manner of jobs – from window cleaner to welder – Bill Gallagher studied at the University of East Anglia, under Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. Subsequently, he taught drama and dramatic writing at the university before becoming a fulltime writer. His first stage play, Darkle, won The Sunday Times Playwriting Award.

Raised in the ship-building community of Newcastle, Bill now lives in Norfolk and has two children. With a passion for television drama, his credits include Maigret, Clocking Off, Hero of the Hour, Out of the Blue, Moving Story, Conviction, Four Fathers and Lark Rise to Candleford. Bill is the winner of Trik Awards and Monte Carlo Awards, and has been nominated for BAFTAs and Royal Television Society Awards. As a young boy, Bill saw The Prisoner during its original broadcast and was mesmerized by it, without understanding why. It has since haunted him in many ways that few dramas have. The following is a brief AMC Q & A with the writer.

How did you get involved with the re-imagining of The Prisoner?

Bill Gallagher – I had a phone call from Granada Television. It was such a surprising call…and I found myself having this bizarre conversation about reworking The Prisoner. I knew immediately I wanted to do it. I won’t claim to have been a longtime fan of the original series, but I had seen it once as a boy. It had such an impact on me. It was so strange and so unfathomable. It disturbed me like no other TV show. That stayed with me for a long time. That all came back to me, so I knew immediately I wanted to do it. And then the prospect of doing it terrified me.

What terrified you? Was it that the show had such a cult following?

BG – Partly, I respect the original. I am inspired by the original. But, it’s never about redoing it and pleasing the people who love the original. They love the original because of what it is. It was the scale of the task. It is such a mind-boggling concept. I knew I couldn’t just make a conventional drama built on conventional structures. I knew it had to be different.

Exactly what are Number Two's (Sir Ian McKellen) true motivations? Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

Talk about the character of Two and his backstory.

BG – In the original series, there was a series of Twos and he was The Village authority figure. what I was interested in was to stay with this man and to open up the battle between Six [Jim Caviezel] and Two [Sir Ian McKellen] and to get to know Two. Who is this man? What is his mission? What are his moral challenges? If he is a man with a vision, and that vision becomes The Village, then what are the costs to him? What happens when this man has a family? I was really interested in the character of Two and that couldn’t be achieved by replacing Two each week. His actions tell us who he is, but I was also interested in finding out why he does what he does, and what it has cost him.

How did you imagine the character of Six and his journey?

BG – Six begins from a premise that’s already given to me by the original series: there is a man cast into this strange place, he wants to escape, he rails against authority, and he’s determined to assert his own individuality. For me, it’s the man himself and his history. What if Six was a lonely man? What if he was a man who didn’t know how to form relationships? What if he was a man whose work separated him from the world? What are the challenges that are thrown to Six himself, in his own beliefs, in his own ideas, in his own failings? The series is a hero’s journey. That journey is an attempt to escape, an attempt to overcome the monster that is Two. But also, it’s a challenge to overcome the monster in himself.

The Prisoner debuts with two episodes on Sunday, November 15th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST and continues at the same time on Monday, the 16th and Tuesday, the 17th. Watch for more Q & As as well as cast interviews as the week goes on.

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Mañana, 15 de Noviembre, comienza a emitirse el remake de nuestra querida serie sesentera The Prisoner.  Con un presupuesto de 10 millones de libras, esperamos que AMC e ITV hayan hecho algo bueno, y no la bazofia que suele encontrarse en los remakes.

Aunque todos los “entendidos” del tema siempre auguran una maravilla de remake, debido a que AMC produjo Mad Men y Breaking Bad. En el nuevo trailer podemos ver algunas escenas calcadas a las de la serie original:

AMC ha lanzado el primer capítulo de la novela gráfica del remake de The Prisoner, disponible en su página web:

Capítulo Primero

I am sooo looking forward to this.  Hopefully it does justice to the original.  Starts this Sunday at 8/7c on AMC.

For a further taste, don’t forget about the 2009 Comic Con exclusive comic of The Prisoner.  Be seeing you.

Sir Ian McKellen as Number Two in The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada TV/AMC

IN the 1960s British TV series The Prisoner, a character named simply Number Two was the overseer of The Village, a remote seaside community that welcomed new “residents” but rarely allowed anyone to leave – at least alive. When an ex-British Secret Service agent, Number Six (played by actor and series co-creator Patrick McGoohan), was brought to The Village against his will, Number Two was assigned the task of finding out the truth behind why Six resigned from his job.

Over the course of the show’s 17-episode run, no less than 17 actors and actresses portrayed Number Two, with Leo McKern appearing three times and Colin Gordon appearing twice. Some stories featured more than one Number Two, including It’s Your Funeral, in which two incarnations of the character played major roles in the episode, while images of two others were seen as well.

This Sunday, November 15th, AMC will air the first two episodes of its six-part miniseries remake of The Prisoner. Award-winning British stage, feature film and TV actor Sir Ian McKellen assumes the role of Number Two and, like his predecessors, is equally dogged when it comes to finding out Number Six’s (Jim Caviezel) true agenda. In the following AMC press Q & A, Sir Ian McKellen talks about the 2009 miniseries and his role in it.

Why did The Prisoner interest you?

Ian McKellen - This is the sort of thing I would enjoy watching myself and that is always the test. It also arrived at the right time – I wanted to work and, to top it all, it brought me to Cape Town. Now, it’s more intriguing than when I first read it. It’s a thriller and unlike the original series, this is much more about what Six wants to escape from and why he can’t escape. There are clues from the very first scene in the opening episode.

Who is Two?

IM - In the original series, Two was running The Village. More than that, he was played by a different actor for each episode, but this time there’s just me playing the part. Two appears to be in charge of The Village and he has the qualities of someone who might well be that. If you like The Village, you’d accept him as your leader and revere him, but if you don’t like The Village, you’d think he is a monster. I personally don’t think he’s creepy at all.

A pensive moment for Number Two. Photo copyright of Granada TV/AMC

What about Two’s family?

IM - It is no secret that Two has a family. He has a son in his late teens and he has a wife who’s comatose and with whom he is madly in love. So he has a wife who he can’t really talk to, and a son who doesn’t want to talk to him. He loves them both and it is his love for them both that sets the whole story rollicking along. Does he bring Six to The Village to take over from him or does it become his motive as the story goes on? You never know with The Village.

Why is The Prisoner so compelling?

IM - Once you get involved with something as good as this you find out things you didn’t know before. I read online about people who indulge in mutual dreaming. Sometimes the dreams are identical. I suppose Bill Gallagher [who wrote this re-imagined version of The Prisoner] knew that, and if he didn’t, is very perceptive to these things. What I like about The Prisoner are all the oddities, the strangeness and the peculiarities. Portmerion [the setting in which the original 60s Prisoner was shot] doesn’t look real. It’s a fantasy. Bill Gallagher’s Prisoner is set in a more believable place and one that clearly has a style to it. Swakopmund has the feel of a prison, with the mighty Atlantic Ocean on one side of the town and desert on the other side.

Are there similarities to the original?

IM - There are references back to the original and there are characters that appear in the original that appear in this. I don’t think it is any secret that Rover is back. In this, as opposed to the original, we discover where Rover comes from. Questions are answered. People who enjoyed the original might ask why have you cast an American and not an Englishman in the central role? It all will be answered. The Prisoner is being re-imagined by a group of people who are fans of the original.

Two shares a family moment with his son, 11-12 (Jamie Campbell Bower) and wife, M2 (Rachael Blake). Photo copyright of Granada TV/AMC

What do you think The Prisoner is about?

IM - It is about relationships in the context of things which preoccupy us. It is about the nature of government today, about the state of mental health, about conspiracy theories. It is a thriller because exciting things happen, and if you are interested to know why they happen  you would want to watch the next episode. The story plays with current observations just like the original did.

The Prisoner debuts with two episodes on Sunday, November 15th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST and continues at the same time on Monday, the 16th and Tuesday, the 17th. Watch for more Q & As as well as cast interviews as the week goes on.

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

I saw this movie when it first came out and thought it interesting but not much more. This may be because when initially released it was weighed down heavily by expectations with its star-studded cast and the fact that it was Terrence Malick’s first movie in twenty years. Perhaps this all warped my ability to watch this movie with an objective eye. Today I’m here to tell you that in my mind, this is one of the very best war movies ever made. It follows none of the regular conventions of the genre and is a very meditative take on war and it’s effect on the human psyche.

This may be lazy, but a good way to discuss what makes this movie so unique is to compare it to another successful WWII movie released around the same time: Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg’s was a visceral onslaught, completely immersing you in the intensity of battle from the moment the ramp of the landing craft goes down on Omaha Beach. It focuses on the more ‘noble’ part of WWII – the European theater. Though compelling, it does follow traditional plot format (intro, character exposition, conflict, climax, resolution, denouement) and wasn’t the most intellectually challenging movie. (Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine film and is worthy of praise.)

The Thin Red Line, on the other hand, follows no traditional structure. It’s more free-form and doesn’t focus around any obvious conflict-resolution. It’s driven by revelatory flashbacks and inner dialogue, while the ugliness of battles are interspersed with scenes of incredible natural beauty. To me, that’s the central point Malick is trying to make but more on that later. This movie also takes place in the less-discussed and less-celebrated Pacific theater, one where the Japanese were willing to sacrifice their own lives simply to kill more enemy. (Much like our current quagmire in Afghanistan, but I digress.) Even when performing courageous acts, here the soldiers all look scared shitless.

The movie focuses mostly on Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), a rebellious type of soldier who draws the ire of his 1st Sgt (Sean Penn). Witt has seen another world within this one, a world of light and beauty. Penn’s character seemingly hates Witt’s perspective on life in addition to his soldiering. Witt though, loves Charlie Company. “They’re my people,” he explains. The other character who gets the most exploration is Private Bell (Ben Chaplin), a former officer who resigned his command because he couldn’t stand being separated from his wife, only to be sent to a frontline infantry unit as punishment for his action. Meanwhile the Battle of Guadalcanal awaits. And when the loading ramps lower for them, it opens with a bang. Actually, no. It opens with them being opposed by nothing but the tropical breeze (another way it differs from Private Ryan).

Charlie Company is commanded by Captain Staros (Elias Koteas), a quiet leader who cares about his men too much to send them to certain death without protest. (I’ve always felt Koteas to be an underrated commodity in the acting community.) Lt. Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) has no tolerance for this approach. He’s hungry for glory and recognition, regardless of cost. Others in Charlie Company include characters played by John Cusack, Adrien Brody, John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson. George Clooney and John Travolta also make cameos. (Like I said, this movie has A LOT of folks in it.)

I don’t want to get into too much of what happens. It’s the Battle of Guadalcanal and we all (hopefully) know how it ends and at what heavy human cost. But the historical results of battle are irrelevant here. The cost on the casualties and the survivors is what’s really explored here. The battle scenes are well done and includes more of the insanity that goes along with it. The scenes of Japanese soldiers praying or simply going insane mid-battle are truly eye opening.

But there’s a bigger picture here and it’s one that doesn’t fall directly out of any obvious themes of most war movies. Here, Malick seems to be making a statement on conflict as an inherent part of nature. War is not good or glorious and it is perhaps, unavoidable. What it’s survivors give up they can never get back. This is a long movie at almost three hours. But it was time spent that was paid back in full and then some. I couldn’t help but become completely enthralled by some of these characters. The demise of one nearly brought me to tears.

I give this movie an A-plus.

Number Six (Jim Caviezel) finds himself a long way from home in The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

“I am not a number, I am a free man!” That was the battle cry of the title character in the 1967 – 1968 British spy drama/science fiction TV series The Prisoner. Starring and co-created by actor Patrick McGoohan, the show tells the story of a British Secret Service Agent who, after resigning, is kidnapped and taken to a secluded (and inescapable) seaside locale called “The Village,”  where his abductors use all manner of psychological techniques to try to figure out exactly why he resigned. This Sunday (November 15th), AMC begins airing a three-part re-imagined version of The Prisoner starring Jim Caviezel (The Passion of Christ, Final Cut) in the title role. The following is an AMC Q &A with the actor, who talks about his involvement in the project.

What was the appeal of the role of Six and the series in general?

Jim Caviezel - The challenge for me was taking on an iconic role in a series of such cult status and making it my own. It is a hugely ambitious TV project. It is surreal, complex and challenging for the audience.

How would you describe your character?

JC - Six is stubborn, persistent, curious and clever. He is always looking for answers, refuses to conform and never gives up hope. Six is constantly looking for a way out of The Village – either physically or psychologically. In each episode, he tries to escape by different means.

Does it make it harder or easier playing an iconic lead? How do the Sixes in the original Prisoner and this new version differ?

JC - Although it would be foolish not to recognize the original character created by Patrick McGoohan, the Six I play is very much a contemporary man dealing with issues that affect us now. He does have some similar characteristics with the original Six, like his defiant nature and his complex antagonistic relationship with Two [Sir Ian McKellen]. But we learn more about his life before The Village. We also see him building strong relationships with other Villagers through the six episodes.

Number Two (Ian McKellen) is determined to extract the truth from Number Six. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

Were you a fan of the original series of The Prisoner?

JC - I purposely decided not to view the original series. I wanted to find my own interpretation for the role without being influenced by what had been done before.

How do you eel about shooting a remake? Do you think it will inevitably invite comparison with the original and, more specifically, invite comparisons between your portrayal of Number Six and Patrick McGoohan’s?

JC - Yes, it is inevitable that comparisons will be made, but our series is more a reinvention than a remake. It looks at the situation with a fresh eye, and deals with issues that affect us now, and the character is very contemporary. The creative team is keen to remain faithful to the spirit of the original, but both the structure and the character have been reworked. Hopefully, audiences will be able to enjoy it as a separate piece of contemporary television.

What was it like filming with Sir Ian McKellen?

JC - He is a superb actor and we had enormous fun playing adversaries.

What did you think of Namibia?

JC -The space, the desert and the dunes are awesome. The town of Swakopmund is a strange and interesting place – an authentic German town in the desert of Africa.

Six appears to have made a friend in 313 (Ruth Wilson). Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

The Prisoner debuts with two episodes on Sunday, November 15th @ 8 p.m. EST/PST and continues at the same time on Monday, the 16th and Tuesday, the 17th. Watch for more Q & As as well as cast interviews as the week goes on.

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada TV and AMC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Two totally opposite numbers - Six (Jim Caviezel) and Two (Ian McKellen) in AMC's The Prisoner. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

A man wakes up in a mysterious place where people have numbers instead of names, and all traces of his former life are renounced as delusions. Welcome to The Village, the setting of AMC’s second original miniseries television event, The Prisoner, premiering Sunday, November 15th from 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. EST/PST. The six-part miniseries airs over three consecutive nights, with two episodes each evening beginning at 8 p.m. EST/PST. AMC’s reinterpretation of the 1960s cult classic by Patrick McGoohan tells the story of one man’s desperate quest to find his way back to his former life and reclaim his freedom. A co-production of AMC, ITV Productions and Granada, The Prisoner combines a wide range of genres, from Espionage to Sci-Fi, into an adrenaline pumping, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will ultimately make you question what you think is real.

Forty years ago, McGoohan’s original 1967 series – a riff on Cold War politics – changed the scope of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Now, AMC’s re-imagining explores and questions contemporary issues of power and control; family and love; privacy and security. What is the value and the price of freedom? Who is watching and controlling whom? What is love? Reflecting the same verve, complexity and uniquely disturbing commentary of the original, The Prisoner is an investigation into modern alienation, the corruption of power, rights of the individual, and the mysteries of the human condition.

The Village's iconic penny-farthing bicycle logo - an homage to the original Prisoner TV series. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

The Prisoner follows a man (Jim Caviezel) who resigns from his job and wakes up to find himself inexplicably trapped in a strange and surreal place, The Village, with no memory of how he arrived. As he frantically explores his new environment, he discovers that Village residents are identified by number, have no memory of any prior existence, and are under constant surveillance. Called by the number Six, the man is driven by the desperate need and desire to know what The Village is, why he is there, and who controls it. Is he being brainwashed or debriefed? Most importantly, Six needs to find a way to escape and return to his previous life.

The Village is controlled by one man – the sinister and charismatic Two (Ian McKellen), who goes to extreme measures to convince Six that there is no other place but The Village. In order to hold onto his identity, Six engages Two in a battle of wits and challenges the oppressive nature of The Village. When he befriends a doctor, 313 (Ruth Wilson), and a taxicab driver, 147 (Lennie James), Six must fight the temptation to assimilate the hidden truth behind The Village, and in doing so, Six must also confront some dark truths about himself.

Number Two takes a little stroll through The Village. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

“With great affection and respect for the original The Prisoner, AMC set out to re-imagine McGoohan’s brilliantly captivating story with the goal of creating a landmark television event,” said Charlie Collier, president of GM and AMC. “Just like our other originals which explore, among other themes, the mystery of human behavior, The Prisoner not only entertains, but also addresses larger life questions and asked whether we, as humans, can ever be truly free.”

Shot on location in Swakopmund, Nambia and South Africa, The Prisoner stars Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ, The Thin Red Line) in the title role of Six, a part that was originally made famous when played by McGoohan; two-time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, The Da Vinci Code) as Two; Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited, Mansfield Park) as 4-15; Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre, Capturing Mary) in the role of 313; Lennie James (Jericho) as 147; Rachael Blake (Lantana, Tom White) as M2, the wife of Two, and Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) as 11-12, the son of Two.

Six finds himself in a sticky situation. Photo copyright of Granada/AMC

The Prisoner debut will be complemented by a variety of exclusive material available on AMC’s extensive Prisoner blog, www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner. Fans can watch the original 1960s series, which aired from 1967-1968, in full-screen, and check out episode re-caps, a photo gallery, trivia quiz, talk forum, and behind-the-scenes, making-of-video diaries.

AMC co-produced The Prisoner with UK producer Granada and ITV Productions. Granada International will distribute the series worldwide. Trevor Hopkins (Dracula, Poirot) is producer, and Michele Buck (Sex Traffic), Damien Timmer (Housewife 49) and Rebecca Keane (Lost in Austen) are executive producers for ITV. The miniseries is written by Bill Gallagher (Conviction, Clocking Off, Lark Rise To Candleford) and directed by Nick Hurran (It’s A Boy Girl Thing, Little Black Book).

As noted above, all photos copyright of Granada  and AMC TV, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Jeez, war films in 1998 took over the Oscars.

With an all-star cast — featuring Sean Penn, George Clooney, Nick Nolte and Adrien Brody — director Terrence Malick’s lyrical and beautiful retelling of James Jones’s novel about the 1942 battle for Guadalcanal was nominated for seven Oscars. With narration by Pvt. Witt (Jim Cavaziel), the men of C-Company become a tight-knit group as they each individually face the horrors of war to hold onto a key-positioned airfield.

The Thin Red Line, is basically a remake of the original 1964 flick, and to be truly honest after watching this film, I don’t think I will have to dig back into the archives and watch that.

Most War films over-exploit the gore and the violence of the war, but never really capture the feelings of the war within it’s soldiers. This film, captured all the feeling imaginable. We really do get to feel what these characters feel through a lot of emotional and overall beautiful images that are being narrated over by soldiers that are present in the film.

Immediately, I was caught up in this film, even in its first frame that features an alligator. It not once lost my interest until the very end where I did start to believe the moral story of good and evil started to wane on, and become a little boring and I didn’t that there wasn’t any material to work from.

Terrence Malick returns to film-making after his 20 year absence, and it doesn’t feel like he missed those years at all. He without a doubt capture the right emotion at the right time with every little scene. The cinematography that he worked on really made us feel the intensity of fighting an enemy that was hidden. Malick should’ve won Best Director for this film because although he doesn’t steer this film into perfection, he does steer into the right and very inspired direction.

Visually, this film is just one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. There are some scenes that are so beautiful, so touching, and so inspirational that I couldn’t just help but shed a tear. Some scenes as I stated before are over-lapped by little narration from the soldiers, but you almost forget about the speaking and can’t stop but gaze at how beautiful the look and feel this movie really does have.

The all-star cast really does a good job in this film and really do step away from their public images and create characters that we like and can relate to. Out of the whole cast Nick Nolte is who I really think does the best. He is angry, ruthless, and also very misguided and you can see that coming out of his performance. I wish that there was more time for these big stars to interact with one another but overall I was pleased with the way some of these characters were used. I also liked how the Japanese weren’t portrayed as these savage killers who have no souls. Instead, they were shown with having as much fear and terror as much as the U.S., and that’s what really separates this film from others.

The only complaint that I really do think killed this film to be as much as a success as Saving Private Ryan, was that there are way too many scenes of just down time. In SPR, the down time was actually interesting and you actually got a sense of what those characters lives we’re like before war. However, in this the down time is submitted to beautiful visuals but overall not very interesting dialouge that I thnk made this film not win one Oscar.

Consensus: The Thin Red Line is visually astonishing, incredibly-well directed, and features amazingly true messages about how the war turns people into animals. However, the film offers to much time for boredom and doesn’t quite connect as well as Saving Private Ryan.

9/10=Full Pricee!!!