More on The Prisoner remake

Six of One have more on the remake of The Prisoner (previous comments here: No Prisoner Remake, Prisoner Remake Back on the Agenda), which now sounds like it is about to get off the ground, with filming in Namibia and Cape Town to start soon, and Sir Ian McKellen as Number Two and James Caviezel as Number Six. It's a six episode series. Presumably this means that it will leave open the way for a second series if the first is successful. ITV seem to be working in these blocks of six these days -- Primeval has been a good example of a Saturday night six-parter, one each year for the last two years. The casting of James Caviezel is interesting to me because of his role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, the Mel Gibson directed 2004 film, about which I have written quite a bit, both in print (book details) and on my academic blog. The one other element of interest in this tidbit of news is that only McKellen is listed as playing Number Two. In the original series, the actor playing Number Two changed each week, and it was one of the most compelling things about the series that each week there would be a new guest actor. Perhaps McKellen is just the first and most famous, or perhaps this is one major element in the "re-imagining"? Whichever one, McKellen could be very interesting indeed in this role.