Unnecessary Remake #256: McGoohan's The Prisoner gets a (dry and sandy) makeover

[thatcrazycajun]

Sci Fi reports here on American Movie Classics' having had the effrontery to remake Patrick McGoohan's 1960s cult-hit TV series The Prisoner as a "re-imagined" six-hour mini, with a new cast (Sir Ian McKellen's presence therein being one of the few redeeming features revealed so far), a new desert location and an utter lack of shame. I heard they were doing it somewhile back, but apparently the thing is now in the can and awaiting airing.

Now, maybe I'm biased, having been a huge fan of the original since I first watched it late Sunday nights on my local PBS station as a geeky teenager. (I even bought Dean Motter's surprisingly good DC Comics sequel, The Prisoner: Shattered Visage, back in the 1980s.) And having sat through the inexcusable cinematic defecation on the memory of the late Robert Wise that was 20th Century-Fox's remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still last year, I'm even more irritated than I might be otherwise. And as I did with the latter, I will likely at least try to watch a bit of this in fairness, if only to confirm my deeply suspicious expectations.

And yes, I know that not all such "re-imaginings" have to turn out bad (cf. Battlestar Galactica). But this is just one more remake that screams "Let's cash in on a popular established brand!" to me. Someone needs to find out where these entertainment-industry suits who can't recognize a classic that was done right the first time are coming from and nuke the place from orbit. "It's the only way to be sure..."

Comments

[pixelene.livejournal.com]

In celebration of the "re-imagining", I will watch my very recently acquired DVD box set of the entire "The Prisoner" series, and be happy I'm not watching some lame re-imagined version.

[wordwitch.livejournal.com]

Having been appalled at what happened to Mission Impossible and to Starsky and Hutch, I can only say --

Need some research assistance, there?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Along with all of the valid objections on the basis of art, one has to wonder: Can't these assholes come up with anything original, all by themselves?

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"But this is just one more remake that screams "Let's cash in on a popular established brand!" to me."

I have to disagree with this part -- measuring by the mass-market scale and being brutally honest, I don't think The Prisoner is a "popular established brand".

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

If it'll help, I have the original series on DVD and we can do dinner and an episode while your songbird is in Kenya.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

"Galactica" was redone and the result overall turned out to be watchable and in some respects superior to the original.

"Superman" has been redone so many times since the 1940s that it's not funny, yet each version survives due to its own quality. It's still the George Reeves version for me, although the Salkind films looked great, I did like "Suerman Returns" and "Smallville" still gets a visit when "Ugly Betty" is in reruns.

"Star Trek" went the Ourobouros route with "Enterprise" and made the Original series look dated. As the original stars age, die and do kitchy lawyer shows, this revision is about due.

"The Prisoner" stands on its own and Patrick McGoohan is/was/will always be No. 6 to me. I will judge the remake on its own grounds.