It’s probably for the best, really…

Updated on August 19, 2009 By Ken Begg 14 Comments

Director Christopher Nolan has opted out of directing the movie version of the old TV show The Prisoner(*gaak*) in order, it is assumed, to start work on his third Batman movie. A wise choice, I believe, on any number of fronts.

Meanwhile, there’s this quote from producer Barry Mendel: “‘Nolan has dropped out of it but we have a first draft (of the script) by David and Janet Peoples who wrote Twelve Monkeys. It’s a good draft and we’re working on the script right now…If the [proposed new TV] series was wildly popular that might effect us. The screenplay (we’ve got) is such a re-imagination of the series, if you think of The Avengers that wasn’t a commercially successful film but it was very much in the spirit of the original show, this looks and feels so different that the tenants of the show are apparent but the execution of it is so different that I think it is unrecognizable.”

Hard to dispute a concise, well wrought argument like that. Given that I can’t really understand what the hell he is saying.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • sandra

    I think he’s saying that the only point of resemblance to the tv series will be the title: so no Village, no #2, no giant balloons etc. Did you ever see the episode of The Simpsons where they ended up in The Village. As Madge said “Once you get used to the constant druggings, its really beautiful here.”

  • Ken HPoJ

    If so, then calling it The Prisoner is monumental folly. Why create clear expectations about your work that you always meant to frustrate. (See…actually, don’t…Frank Miller supposed adaptation of The Spirit.) That doesn’t sound very bright to me. Call it something else, then.

  • Marsden

    But, if you call it something else, you’re missing out on that built in fanbase. Even if said fanbase is disgruntled afterward, they’ve already bought their tickets and the money has been secured. It’s not as if you can go get your ticket money back on a sucky movie, right?

  • fish eye no miko

    The screenplay (we’ve got) is such a re-imagination of the series

    [eye-twitch]

  • Plissken79

    The Prisoner was as good as TV gets on either side of the Atlantic. To try a remake it as another a new series or a movie would be the height of folly.
    Besides, no one can take the place of Patrick McGoohan

    Chris Nolan set the bar so high with The Dark Knight, it will be tough to follow it up, but I think he is more than up to the challenge

  • Joe Robin

    How was that last Batman movie? I never heard much about it.

  • Mr. Rational

    Besides, no one can take the place of Patrick McGoohan

    I don’t know. I think John Cena is up to the job. Maybe Channing Tatum or Josh Duhamel.

  • BeckoningChasm

    If so, then calling it The Prisoner is monumental folly. Why create clear expectations about your work that you always meant to frustrate. That doesn’t sound very bright to me. Call it something else, then.
    Ha ha ha, I assume this is irony (I guess). Calling it something else means you gotta start the marketing campaign all over again, and you don’t have a horse of fanboys waxing outrageous over the assault on the orignal material. Where will the publicity come from?!?

  • Joe, seriously, drop me a note with your new address/phone info, ya mook.

  • jzimbert

    I found this exact quote on several sites, so I know these weren’t your fault Ken: affect, not effect and tenets, not tenants.

  • David Fullam

    Personally I would be glad to never see a Hollywood film version of The Prisoner. The 9 minute trailer for the upcoming TV retelling was bad enough.

  • The Prisoner is the reason I hate and despise all network TV to this day. Not because it was bad, but because of the standard it set, to which no other TV show can ever aspire.

  • P Stroud

    It sounds like they are saying that the Avengers Movie was a commercial failure and it was in the spirit of the TV show so therefore they don’t want the Prisoner movie to be like the TV show or something.

    Still doesn’t make any sense. The Avengers movie was nothing like the TV show aside from a few surface similarities. The TV show was clever and had Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman and Patrick Macnee. The movie waa stupid and horribly miscast.

    Sounds like the Prisoner movie is a vanity project and they are looking for any excuse to jettison everything that made it good.

  • ProfessorKettlewell

    Another property they’re going to scale a ladder and cr*p all over from a great height….oh, why can’t they leave things alone?

    And as for missing out on the fan-base, is that seriously more than a few tens of thousands of people, fanatical though they may be? Besides, that really is a fan community which will actually organise and implement boycotts, meaning that lashing your movie to the mast of ‘…all of the Prisoner fans will come out in droves to support us’ sounds a bit like when African rebel Generals start out with ‘…and all of The People will rise up to support us’.