Project Redlight: The Prisoner

Stalled film projects are not only frustrating for those directly involved but can leave fans with a sour taste in their mouths. Usually these projects are decomposing on agents/producers’ shelves and they may have gone through so many hands (countless rewrites/ambitious filmmaker visions/producers balking at production costs) that they lose a little shine. The antonym of “to greenlight a project”, IONCINEMA.com’s “Project Redlight” attempts to dust off the cobwebs and add a verbal pulse to projects that have been flat-lined for a while. This month we look at: The Prisoner

Based on the cult 17-episode, British television series created by Patrick McGoohan that went on air October 1st 1967 and lasted until the 4th of February the following year, there have been talks of seeing a feature length film version for the past four decades now, and previous mentions of the project in the last decade have sounded promising. So what the hell happened?

In the late 90’s McGoohan wrote a script, but that screenplay didn’t receive any love, so duo writing team Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner give the script a Hollywood action twist only to be replaced by one from The Usual Suspects scribe Chris McQuarrie. During this time Simon West was attached to direct, and at some point Clive Owen was mentioned as a possible number 6 (an accurate full account of what occurred can be found at the fan appreciation site) but then the project collected dust for five years.

The revival of sorts occurred when the original producer back at Universal Mendel gets Universal to offer the pic to Christopher Nolan to direct. Janet and David Peoples are set to write the script. Scott Stuber, Mary Parent, Mendel and Emma Thomas are set produce to produce. Not a mention until AMC decides to make a TV miniseries remake which will air in November. Jim Caviezel is number 6. Ian McKellan is number 2. Here is the production blog for updates.

Unless this becomes some cutting edge homage, this may find itself in the same predicament that an eventual feature length film might find itself in: how could it measure in comparison to McGoohan’s mad creation and how could it not end up disappointing the huge fan base? Unlike an 80’s horror film remake, people have been waiting decades for this – so perhaps they can’t go wrong?

Will The Prisoner be back to square one as the main character found himself in after the end of each episode? Time will tell whether the series sparks an interest for a film version or whether it makes it a tougher sell. Until then I’ll throw this catch phrase at you: Be seeing you!