The Prisoner: 9 minute remake trailer just out

Comic-Con is underway at the moment in San Diego and for those, like me, eager for news of The Prisoner remake, the good news is that it is now coming thick and fast. Apparently a new nine-minute trailer premiered at Comic-Con yesterday and happily, it's already available on the AMC Prisoner Blog:



First impressions: this looks fantastic. It combines a new look and a new feel with elements of the original series -- The Village, surveillance, paranoia, mind-tricks, Number Six vs. Number Two, escape attempts, perpetual summer, taxi-rides, the local shop, a very large map and . . . . Rover! In fact there is a hilarious moment in the discussion at Comic-Con, also available on the AMC Prisoner blog, when (AMC Vice President of Production) Vlad Wolynetz explains how he made the suggestion, at a production meeting on Rover, that they could perhaps dare to use a big white ball.

A couple of other quick comments. It is clear now that one of the major departures from The Prisoner (original) is that Number Six (now just "Six") is an American from New York, and that New York replaces London. I think that that is fine in a remake, and to be expected given the casting. It looks like AMC are really pushing for an international release. They speak about a "world premiere" in November so it looks like it should be on AMC in the States and ITV in the UK at the same sort of time. A mixture of British and American casting takes us back to the hey-day of programmes like The Persuaders.

One other earlier comment I had made (The Village in the Prisoner remake) also seems to be confirmed, that the look of the new village evokes The Truman Show as much as it does The Prisoner. This is one of those odd and enjoyable intertextual things given that The Truman Show was clearly influenced by The Prisoner original.