Prompting equal amounts of scratched heads and slavish fan devotion when it aired in 1967, Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner continues to defy solid explanation to this day. If you’ve never watched it, the show sees McGoohan as a government agent who resigns and is shipped off against his will to a surreal island village and driven slowly mad in the hunt for information about why he ditched the job. He’s given the number Six and is constantly trying to escape, only to be thwarted by his fellow villagers and gigantic, bouncing balloon-type guardians known as Rovers.
The series only lasted 17 episodes, but has clearly lodged itself in people's imagination – Universal is setting up a deal for Batman Begins director Chris Nolan to make a film version. Even if he signs on the dotted line, Nolan is busy making Batman: The Dark Knight and wouldn’t begin working on this until after that is finished. But Twelve Monkeys scribes Janet and David Peoples are writing the script and the movie will be set in the present day, not the ‘60s.
And the show was already in the middle of remake rumours - with another Christopher – this one former Doctor Who Eccleston – being touted as a possible new Number Six. What do we want? Information!
